Elsa of Antarctica
by jeffs1234
Summary: It is the year 2050, what has Elsa been up to? In 1850 Pabbie confirmed what Elsa suspected, her powers have stopped her aging. "How long will I live?" "How old is the ice in the oldest glacier?" Posted prologue Queen Elsa falls to her knees, and in a soft, pleading voice, "PLEASE... I am begging, BEGGING, you, please let me help the world."
1. Prologue

prologue

October 25, 2040 New York City. The United Nations building.

A room in the basement of the building, sealed and protected from any sort of electronic spying.

Seated behind a massive table is the current Presidents, Prime Ministers and other leaders of the nations of the Security Council, plus a couple of extra invited leaders.

On the other side of the room, seated behind a small bare table is Queen Elsa, in her disguise as Anna Winter, a brilliant scientist and an known environmentalist, who inherited a fortune from her family. One of the best known leaders, and definitely the most powerful person, of the environmental movement.

Her face looks different than her birth face, sharper check bones and wider jaw, mainly. She has a darker complexion, but her hair is still platinum-blond. It is styled by wrapping the braid around itself on the back of her head. (It looks similar to Princess Leia's at the end of 'A New Hope' during the awards ceremony.) She is wearing a silk suit, with a skirt.

Behind her is Eric Yngling-Fairhair, her bodyguard, and as such, he is ignored by most of the people in the room. To be more accurate, the leaders are ignoring him, the bodyguards lining the wall behind them have been warned about him, and watch him closely. He is wearing a tailored standard loose fitting suit for a bodyguard. It is, however, of the very finest fabric and styling.

Elsa is speaking in a calm voice, "You have all seen the Generator. It creates energy from, basically, nothing. There is no environmental impact, beyond the normal for the building of a small power plant. My projections indicates, that once the production factory is complete and running, the costs for a finished plant would be a fraction, a SMALL fraction, of a similar sized, traditionally fueled power plant. Maintenance and running costs will also be smaller than normal."

She nods at the stone faced group facing her, "Yes, there is still some, minor stability problems, but they are correctable within a few years. I can make them and, with your support, we CAN start to fix this damaged world."

"All I see is someone that will destroy my nation." One of them, a man for an oil producing country, says in a scornful voice.

"And how many petrochemical workers will you throw, penniless, on the street?" Another asks, but the tone in his voice, says that he is asking the question for the record, not because he is going to listen to any answer.

"That is covered in the plan I gave you, Sir." She answers, as she holds up a thumb drive, similar ones are in front of the each member of the Security Council, "Yes. It will be challenging and will cause, some temporary..."

"I've heard enough." Another interrupts. "I have read that plan, and it is unacceptable."

"The only good thing that I am hearing is because of the classified nature of this meeting and this absurd tech, we can sweep it under the table, easily." Someone remarks, casually.

Many nods...

Elsa's mouth clenches as she thinks, 'Yes, because it would cause you,' a glance of the leaders of the world, 'all of you to lose money and power.'

"If you make those... machines, YOU would be the wealthiest person in the world." Another says, "And given your personal beliefs, I find THAT a threat to the world."

Nods circle the table.

"YES." The President of the Council begins, "It would make you the most powerful person in the world."

A pause, as he is expecting something from her.

"The changes it would cause would destroy many livelihoods."

She thinks, 'Yes, but it is a temporary problem. You will NOT read the plan, most of those people can learn and adjust. I will make sure that there are new jobs for them.'

"It is our," the President waves to the leaders seated next to him, "responsibility to look out for our people, and your... machines will hurt more people then it will help."

'SHORT-SIGHTED FOOL! It means the average cost of electricity for EVERYONE will drop by a large fraction. It means we will not keep filling the air with waste products from burning oil and coal, poisoning the WORLD. I would help EVERYONE in the world!' Anger fills her thoughts.

"As such, we, the Security Council of the United Nations, do not approve of your plan." A pause, a glare.

And the first ultimatum... "And if you attempt to do it, out of your personal resources, we will stop you."

Elsa's eyes close, and a deep breath, "Sirs, please, I can help the world, let me explain." In a calm reasoned voice.

"No." comes from the voices of several of the leaders.

One of them, though, taps the table, "It can not hurt to hear her out, ladies and gentlemen. We do not want it to be known that we never gave her every chance to change our minds."

An hour later...

The emotional atmosphere in the room is poisonous.

Elsa can feel Pabbie's spells in her mind... the spells created to heal minds. The ones she used, in a trivial way, to get her and Eric through the bio-med security sensors that lead to this room.

* * *

From earlier: A wiggle of Elsa's fingers and in a very odd voice she says, "Normal are the security bio-med sensors. Hmmm. Wrong, nothing is. Delete this."

As they walk pass the distracted guards, Eric whispers, "I can ignore a lot of the latter dreck, just for that." Elsa grins as she nods.

* * *

She thinks, 'How easy it would be, just to change their minds. But... that would be wrong. And If I did it how soon do I become what I have fought sooo long and so hard to NOT be? So... I hate doing this and I know that it would only be a short term, very short term, solution. But, once I can start, perhaps...'

After a deep breath, Elsa says, "I can change the structure of Ginnungagap Energy. Instead of a private company, I can change it into a corporation."

"Bribing us, now?" one of females in the room, says with a sneer. "We will not be bribed."

Elsa glares at her and thinks, 'You bitch! I know that you've accepted bribes and that the only reason that you are in power at all, is that you are a poisoner.' A glace across the angry room, 'ALL of you have accepted bribes or done other... things. But... you all will NOT listen to logic. Not a single one of you has the imagination to dream of anything, but yourselves and your selfish desires.'

"I say, again, this farce has gone on long enough!" One of the men pounds the table with his shoe.

Nods from all the others in the room.

Elsa's glower strengthens. The others gaze menacingly back.

Elsa nods, a decision has been made.

She pushes back her chair. Eric moves and places a hand on shoulder. That movement heightens the tension in the room. "They are NOT worthy. DO NOT DO IT!" he hisses into the silence.

She gently removes his hand, glances over her shoulder to look at him, a soft smile appears and disappears on her lips, "They may not be, Eric. But the World is." Something, unspoken, but something... orders pass between them.

She stands up. Everyone in the room follows her..

The bodyguards look at Eric and think about the three, known, assassination attempts on Anna Winter and how they all failed, the most spectacular attempt failed due to Eric. How vague his personal history is. They wonder, even though, everyone in the room is disarmed, how many people Eric would kill or hurt before they could stop him.

Some of the leaders are thinking about her wealth and that they have made a enemy of someone that can oppose their plans. They are remembering the vague stories of her attempt 10 years to revolutionize computer tech and how the older computer companies... they stopped her with some of the nastiest lawsuits, and with obviously bribed judges, ever seen. And how many of the CEO's which made that decision are now out of a job.

Others, most, are thinking about Tyr Security, the third largest private security force in the world, and maybe the best, and its...possible, no, highly probable connections to Anna Winter. They are wondering how Anna is to word HER ultimatum to them.

A few are, also, thinking about Tyr Security, but in a different way. They are thinking about the hysterical briefings their military has given them, after some plan of theirs were destroyed by forces unknown. Tyr Security private special op platoon is small, powerful, and the cost for their services, even as individuals, is astronomical. BUT, as everyone knows, it never fails.

Elsa walks around the table, a final glance across the room...

Eric's icy glare heats the room. 'I will remember this, idiots. Be grateful for your lives, Elsa has ordered me not tell Ragnhild or Asa or the rest of the family about this. For if they knew, you would be dead.'

Queen Elsa falls to her knees, and in a soft, pleading voice, "PLEASE... I am begging, BEGGING, you, please let me help the world."

Silence...

A look passes between the leaders of the world. They do something worse than saying 'NO', worse than laughing at her, they...

They all start to file out of the room. Silently... The only sound, the shrill sound of the shredders, as they drop the thumb drives in them.

They ignore her as she buries her head in her hands and starts to weep...

'Fools and idiots,' Eric thinks as he rushes to Elsa's side to comfort her. 'She never wanted to go to war against the world. BUT... That plan, which she hates, can not be stopped, now.'

5 years later. Stonehenge. Halloween night. Midnight.

Looking, from a distance, at the group of young people having a party in and among the ruins, is a woman leaning on a staff. She is short, with dark sun tanned skin, and long dark hair. Her clothes... change, sometimes it is deer skin, sometimes a crude string skirt, sometimes she is nude. Her appearance changes... sometimes she is a young woman, sometimes an adult mature woman, sometimes an ancient crone.

Elsa walks up to her. She kneels on one knee, and bows her head in respect for the oldest human.

"I came at your request." She says. The woman pats her head and gestures for her to raise.

They turn and watch the party.

"They do not know with what they tamper with..." the woman says, in a disgusted tone.

Elsa's eyes narrow, "Which is good."

The woman nods. "This is much safer."

"Gazing on the ruins of my attempt, oh so long ago." The voice changes. The tone sad. "Will you do better, in your attempt to change mankind?"

"In time, no. I expect in future years, for us to stand and gaze upon the ruins of my attempt. All I hope for is a generation, maybe two, of peace."

"Why do it then?"

"I must stop the coming storm."

weariness... "Storms come, and storms go. Such is life."

"I must help them, even if they reject me."

"A good reason." A pause. "Perhaps the best one. I can not give you my blessing, for I have seen far to many failures. But, I will not stop you."

Elsa bows her head, "Thank you, Lif."

The woman nods. A gust of wind, a swirl of leaves and she vanishes.

Elsa gazes at the drunken party. She shakes her head in sadness. "soon."

thank you for reading

jeff shelton

* * *

For those of you who know that I am mangling Norse myths. Stories, myths and legends, pasted mouth to mouth, bard to bard, generation to generation change... Hopefully my story will be enjoyable.

Language note: Elsa, Eric, Asa and Ragnhild, or Anna or Kristoff when they are alive, do not use the work 'OK.' Change to 'Fine' whenever used.

Olaf, of course does use OK. OK, slang for 'Oll Korrect" was created in Boston in 1839. Frozen is 1837.

How Olaf knew it, they do not ask. The fact that Elsa and the others KNEW what it meant, without hearing it before... is a question they really, really do not ask.

Plus... the first time they heard it from someone beside Olaf... well there was a very bad first impression.

1841: A ship from Boston enters the harbor. Anna and the Captain of the ship having a screaming row on the docks... the 13 year old beaten and raped cabin boy, hiding under her skirts. Fight in a bar. The Captain waking up in pain. Under the bottle of laudanum, a note: Hey! Your balls are busted. Your balls should not have gotten in the way of my boot... multiple times. Sorry about that, but. Shit Happens. Signed Husband to the nice lady that spent 30 minutes trying to tell you that you are lower than whale shit.

The bar owner giving the captain back all the money he and his crew spent. "you are Black Balled. Queen Elsa's orders. Leave before she gets angry." Finally loading ice for Cuba in Oslo. The ice vanishing the first night out. Return to Oslo. Police waiting for him. "The Queen of Arendelle sent us this letter of complaint, about you publicly insulting and verbally assaulting her sister. The money you used to pay for the ice is counterfeit. Return the ice, or pay for it in real gold, now, or be arrested and your ship seized to pay for your fraud." Magnus, Elsa's special messenger to Oslo, with a cold thin smile, looking on in distance, making sure that Elsa's wish IS fulfilled...

* * *

Note: I am aware of "Fractal" and the fact that it did not exist until 1975. Elsa was alone and has never, ever told anyone... I am aware of the bicycle... but since I can not figure out a way to make it fit, I will ignore it. The older style ships... the government envoys were low level... so the ships they traveled in were older pre-steam ships.

* * *

I've had a couple of questions about how I came up with this story/idea. A quick unedited version.

I had a couple of story ideas. Elsa dealing with immediate aftermath of Frozen that were more serious than Disney. The problem with them...was what to do with Olaf. That got me thinking about WHAT could a snowman do? Which is where I came up with some of the tricks I am doing with her icemen. But...getting Olaf to do them? Shakes head. Creating new character...solved that problem. BUT forced me to think about Elsa's ability to create LIFE... That led to... if she has semi-god like powers...how would she react to that knowledge? Not a short story...and to explore that fully... I had to give her a long, long life. But...if she was functional immortal... how does she act in the real world? Which led to an outline of her life... and I just keep expanding that outline...

I do have conflicts and plot in store. She has to deal with the scars of that long life. Her children want to be free to due as they wish. There are other magical entities out there. And her desire to help the world that may not want her help.

* * *

The Day of Elsa's Interview...

someplace else...

Somebody is feeding a fire, chanting, a flash of a knife... Blood drips into the fire.

"She has revealed herself." Words crackle in the flames.

"In her attempt to learn... She weakened the cage." The Flames form a shape.

"The path is open. I will rise." Hummingbird feathers appear out of the flame.

The person shudders as the flaming shape engulfs him.

He holds up a bloody human heart.

Sparks glow in his eyes. "I must feed."


	2. Chapter 1

Elsa of Antarctica

It is the year 2050, what has Elsa been up to? In 1850 Pabbie confirmed what Elsa suspected, her powers have stopped her aging. "How long will I live?" "How old is the ice in the oldest glacier?"

Note: I am trying to lock Frozen into the real world. In this story the events of Frozen occur during July 18-23 in the year 1837. (I am aware that is a little before the 1840's date given by Disney, but there is a real world event that I want to include, so I'm adjusting the time line to make it fit.)

Note: thank you to Peace Sign Freak for the revision.

Chapter 1:

Antarctica approx. -71.6, 170.4 February 20, 2050

Elsa, she looks like she is still in her early twenties, with only her waist long platinum-blond hair, it is interwoven with ice and snow hairs. The depths in her crystal blue eyes give away that she is older than she appears, walks into the room. She is wearing one of her blue ice dresses. It has layers of light blue ice, slit to the waist, an ice belt keeping it decent, with a low neck line. The dress' snowflake designs, however, are always changing, growing and shrinking, in an ever duplicating show.

Her three inch heels stick to the ice allowing her to walk normally. Hanging around her neck is an ice chain with a golden locket with the word "family" (in Norwegian) written in platinum on it. In her right ear is a modern blue tooth-type device. A tablet computer is in her right hand. The room is in one of her ice towers. It is in the shape of a hexagon and is 30 feet across.

From the domed 30 feet high ceiling dangles a three foot wide snowflake, it like her dress is always changing, patterns of ice. The room glows softly in its slowly shifting light. The walls also have snowflake patterns on them as she enters the room they start moving like the patterns on her dress. The room had several folding cloth chairs and was complete with the proper equipment and lightning necessary for a TV interview. Wires leave the room for the outdoors. The white Antarctica snow-pack is seen outside, through the door. (There is a small scrum of people wrapped in winter clothing, holding mikes, trying to get in her way, but they are stopped by others.)

She nods to the two men in the room, as she says, "Are you gentlemen ready for the interview?"

They look at each, look around at the electronic clutter, and extra overcoats, on the icy floor and one of them, the tech, says, "In a few minutes, there is some static on the line, I'd like to clear up." He pauses then asks, "how come this room temperature is about 68 degrees Fahrenheit and the floor is still frozen solid?"

The other man thinks as he looks around the room, 'before she entered the room, it was beautiful, but... lifeless... now... how can ice become alive?'

She smiles, "I told the air to stay at a comfortable temperature and the ice not to melt."

They blink and stare at her.

Her smile widens, "There are more of complex explanations, but they all equate to the conclusion that the environmental conditions around me obey me."

The older of two men, who is Caucasian, with a short black beard, a little under six feet, and looks to be in his early forties, wearing cold weather gear that is half-open says,"Um. I hate to start a conversation like this but… your, ah, people? Told us to use this room for an interview?"

"Icemen, will do." She waves behind her and one of her icemen enters the room. He looks, at first glance, like a normal six foot tall man. His skin is snow, though, and his hair is just a wave of snow. The eyes, though, look human and are blue. He is wearing a partial set of combat tactical gear, no shoes or boots, though. The ice sword at his side and the ice shield on his back, looks weird when combined with the modern equipment and pistol. "My aide."

The iceman smiles, showing icy teeth, and says, "Call me Herman, if you please." He holds out his hand for the man to shake.

"I'm Liam, Liam Black, reporter for New Zealand News." He says as he tentatively shakes Herman's hand.

The younger Caucasian man, in mid-twenties, with brown hair, about six feet two inches, also clad in partially wearing heavy clothing introduces himself. "I'm Richard Harper. I'm the guy that makes him look good." He says as he points to Liam.

He and Herman shake hands, his hand turning white as he enters into a strength contest. Herman smiles and squeezes back. After about thirty seconds they release their grip, Richard starts to flex his hand, trying to force blood back into it. Herman does nothing special.

The two men look at Elsa, obviously wanting a name. "Call me Elsa."

"Queen Elsa," Herman quickly says, with an emphasis on the word "queen".

As Liam opens his mouth to speak, Elsa interrupts him. "I know that you've got a lot of questions. The events of this morning showed you magical, wondrous and dangerous things." She smiles, "Things that have no scientific explanations. I have successfully concealed my powers and nature for years. You do not know about me, or my daughters and sons." She waves a hand at Herman.

Liam nods.

She continues, "This interview will begin to answer some of those questions." She flips her tablet at the folding cloth chair in the middle of room. By the time it reaches the chair, an ice throne is in its place. The tablet is placed in the right arm of the throne, like a monitor. The throne is on a foot high pedestal. Snowflake patterns grow and prance and frolic on the throne. The top couple of feet of the six foot back of throne have a design carved into it.

The design is the Seal of Elsa, Queen of Arendelle-a circular Nordic shield with a white background. The words "Here I Stand"; "Here I'll Stay" (in Norwegian) written across of the center of the shield. Above the words is an outline of a jagged mountain in black, with blue snowflakes around it: along the top edge of the shield written in Norse Runes is "Kingdom of Isolation" Below the words across the middle, is a red heart with three icicles dangling below, snowflake patterns in pink around it; along the bottom edge of the shield is written in Latin: "Love Will Thaw."

Both reporters had their mouths open. "How?" "What?" They had seen her powers earlier, but only at a distance.

"And, no doubt, create far more questions." she says as she walks to the throne. As she sits down, she says, "I know you desired to do this interview in a more traditional manor, Liam. But, there is a great deal of information, that the people of the world must know that I would like to present to them my way." she waves for him to sit in his cloth chair. Liam does so, while Richard curls up around his computer, working on the connection problems. Herman glides to Elsa's left side.

"Yes. I've got dozens of questions that I would like to ask you." Liam states, pointing to his laptop.

"No doubt." she sighs, "What I would like to do is give a couple of statements, and then begin a short autobiography. I will pause, occasionally, for questions about what I've just said, answer them, and then go on." She nods to his pad, "I believe that will give the information you desire and the world needs in a better, more understandable way, than you just asking random questions."

"Hmm. I'd need to check with Auckland. But unless they have a problem, and I don't really see that they would, that's sounds better than my idea." He says.

"The signal is getting worse, Liam. You may not be able to hear New Zealand."

"Sigh," Elsa says as she touches her blue tooth. "Frigga?"

Both men look at her.

"As we expected." pause. "Go ahead, as planned." She looks at them. "The problems on the line were due to other people hacking you. Frigga has fixed that. Once you've spoken to New Zealand, we'll begin."

As Richard double checks his computer, Liam asks,"Frigga?"

"The head of my IT section."

Liam pauses, hoping for more info. Elsa smiles as she does not add anything to that simple statement.

"Planned." Liam begins, then he says, "Elsa," a growl from Herman, "Queen Elsa, the, how long have you been planning this?"

"In detail: 2015. Generally... 1845."

As Liam's jaws drop, Richard breaks in, "New Zealand says, go for it, boss." He looks down, "Also, we are already live... someone is putting this on the net, on multiple sites, live, no edits or delays."

"Frigga's doing. Too many people were wanting to stop, edit or delay this broadcast, sooo..." She looks at Richard, "I know that you'll be wanting some close-ups, but try to give me some full body shots." She holds her hands apart and snow and ice flash into being. "I'll be using my powers, on occasion, to give a visual emphasis to what I'm talking about." He nods.

Liam asks, "Are we ready then?"

Richard nods. "Ready."

"Good." Elsa stands up, places her hands behind her back and begins, "I will make two statements, then, I will give a short autobiography. That is so the people of world will understand why I am doing this.

"First: Everything I will say during this interview will be truthful. But…this is only a rough overview with minimal detail, so I would expect people to misunderstand some of it." She grimaces, "especially when I try to explain magic. So, use this information carefully." She smiles, her lips curling in a crooked manner.

She takes a deep breath and begins, "Second: Two years ago, the nations of the world decided to end Antarctica's protection against people trying to rape her. This week, one of the environmental disasters, that were predicted, happened. Today, I removed from Antarctica the crew responsible for that oil spill. My daughters and sons are now repairing the area. Consider today a small demonstration of a fraction of my power."

Liam and Richard look at each other. Liam thinks, 'Creating this 200 foot tall tower, encasing a 50,000 ton freighter in an iceberg and creating a two hundred plus yard long whale made out of ice with the power to push it away, at speed, is only a fraction...:'

"Since the world is refusing to protect Antarctica, I will." A pause proceeded by a deep breath."I, Elsa, claim Antarctica. I claim it by the right of the oldest law in human history. The right of power." A pause and the lights in the room turn yellow and swirl of snow appears behind her. "People that rape Antarctica's resources, destroy her delicate environment and mar her icy beauty will be expelled. I will use whatever force necessary to do so. People that can safely manage her resources, shield her fragile environment, and can love her merciless beauty I will help." She pauses and narrows her eyes, "Additional minor exhibitions of power are planned. Tomorrow, after the world has a chance to absorb what information, I am about to reveal, I will contact various interested parties and explain in more detail about what I plan for Antarctica." The lights return to normal.

She smiles, "there are some good things, for all mankind, that I am planning, including a way to generate power out of nothing. While my magic is not understandable by science, it can be used to help science to do what others consider impossible."

A flare of power and ice and snow swirl around her as she sits down.

"Queen Elsa?" Liam begins. She shakes her head, "I will not explain or expand about what I just said, Liam, sorry." He nods.

She holds her hands about a foot apart and an ice sculpture of a little baby forms and floats between her hands. "My name is Elsa Asa Ragnhild Yngling-Fairhair. My parents were the king and queen of Arendelle. At the time of my birth, Arendelle was a small city-state, formally independent of Sweden as Norway was controlled by it at the time of my birth, much like Monaco is from France today. My father could trace his lineage back to Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway." She smiles, "before that his ancestry becomes vague and heavily influence by myths. One of them states that the Norse god Odin is one of his fore-fathers. My mother traced her lineage back to Torf-Einarr, the younger brother of Rollo, the founder/leader of the Norman Vikings of France. Mystically, that line traces back to the god Villi, younger brother of Odin. Why I mention those myths?" A smile appears on her lips, "because they were important to my parents and the depths of their lineage helps explain why Arendelle stayed as independent as it did"

The ice sculpture fades away.

She looks at Liam, "I would expect that most people would believe that I was born on a cold winter day."

He nods. She grins, as he is obeying her hints nicely. "You would be wrong. I was born on July 18 in the year 1816." Her smile grows. "On the other hand, the year 1816 is also known as the year without a summer."

Liam pales.

"No. I did not cause it. Mount Tambora caused that volcanic summer. But... In Arendelle that day, a winter-like blizzard occurred. So during the coldest summer on scientific record, on the coldest day of the month of July, I was born." She shrugs, "did my power cause that intensity of the local weather... highly probable, on the order of 99%. My powers are part of my soul and my emotions and birth is traumatic."

She sighs, "Since I've mentioned my powers, I suppose that this is a good a place as any to talk about them."

Liam quickly adds, "Yes, please. I've gotten a lot of requests for any info about them." He points, again, to his laptop.

She nods then she pursed her lips. "I've thought about this explanation for years and tried out various versions" She waves to Herman, he nods. "But..." sigh, "sadly I can describe what happens when I use my powers, but trying to explain how my powers work is difficult." She pauses obviously thinking.

"Why?"

She glances at Liam, "The words... There are no words in English, nor in any other language, (and you don't want to know how many languages that I can speak), that wok. Gaagudju of Australia comes close, but... Anything is..." She grimaces. "…is like trying to explain the color blue to a blind man. The blind man does not have any reliable reference to understand the words I'm trying to use. So... with that proviso, I'll try to explain the unexplainable."

"OK... I think."

"First, an overview about magic. Magic is, by definition, not scientific, so any logical explanation will fail," she shrugs, "I will attempt to put some sort of scientific gloss over magic and myth, but anything is at best a vague approximation."

A touch of her locket and then she begins, "There is no scientific explanation for the origin," she emphasizes the word 'origin', "of my powers. Ever since I turned 21, I've attempted to locate one, but nothing. There is, however, a mythic explanation. Unfortunately, even that story exists in this world only in fragments. I've managed to reconstruct the myth, via magical means, but," she smiles. "You've just going to have to believe me."

A far off look appears in her eyes, as she remembers, "there is a poem/story that was written in the late 14th century about the adventures of a prince named Hrolf the walker. Summarizing," a slight smile, "and modernizing the story, it goes something like this: Sometime around the year 1316, (and yes, I noticed the 500 year difference between my birth date. There is an explanation, but it is very personal, so I will not explain.)

"A frost giant from Jotunheim, claiming to be a son of the god Loki, appeared in southern Norway and began to conquer the area. A prince of Norway named Hrolf and a human sorceress, after many trails, defeated him with a magical fire." An ice sculpture of a giant and a man fighting him with a torch appear. The torch is thrust into the giant's groin and he melts. "And, Hrolf rescued the captured princess of Denmark named Asa... but... She was pregnant by the giant. The sorceress did not want her killed, or her child destroyed, so she created a magic potion. That potion suppressed the magic of the frost giant child. She taught Asa how to make the potion and told her that the first born child she and her children ever have must drink the potion before they drink their mothers' milk for the first time."

She sighs, "It worked, and my family continued drinking the potion for generations. Until my grandmother. She, after the birth of my mother, decided that the potion was barbarian witchcraft, so she did not teach my mother about it. So, my first meal was my mothers' milk."

"There is no proof?"

She shakes her head, "provable? No...the closest fact is this: the year of 1316 was an even worse year without a summer than 1816."

He grimaces as he asks "Jotenheim?"

"I will explain about Jotenheim later, maybe in a totally different interview. It is complex."

Liam looks down at his laptop. "Ahh, Queen Elsa. I'm..."

Elsa nods, "I know, they want more details, explainable details, but I'm sorry, you'll just have to trust my judgment."

A pause. Liam nods and his lips twist, "Since that will have to do. Ok."

"Thank you. To continue:" Snow forms between her hands, "There is, actually, a partial mathematical equation that explains some of how a fraction of my powers work. But it is deep, deep quantum physics, such that only a handful of people in the world would understand it. I will simplify it and use... some science fiction terminology to interpret it." A deep breath, "what I do... is I create a quantum zero-point energy field. Unlike how most sci-fi presents it, my field removes energy from an area."

"Energy like heat." She snaps her fingers and the temperature in the room drops to 20 degrees in an instant. An icy halo appears around her.

Both Liam and Richard yell, "Hey! What happened?"

"It took a very traumatic event to teach me that my field can be reversed and can add energy." she snaps her fingers and the temperature returns to 68 degrees.

Richard says, "Give a guy a bit more warning next time, please."

Dimples appear on Elsa's checks, "Sorry, but the surprises are just starting. That equation can explain some of my powers, but it cannot explain everything, like how I can create beings like him." She waves her hand toward Herman.

He bows. "I still think Olaf would be better for this part, mother."

"All he would say is." she says.

They both smile in unison, as they say, "I was created by love, with love, what else do you need to know?"

"Very well," he looks at the camera, "My name is Herman Fairhair." He lifts his arm and the snow covering his icy bones retreat showing the bone. "I am what my mother calls, an iceman. Unlike snowmen, I have a skeleton of icy bone covered by snow and I can blend in, within limits, with mankind." He lowers his hand and the snow returns.

"I consider myself and my family to be alive. Of course, I cannot meet the traditional definition of life." he smiles, "I do not a normal biology, obviously."

Richard and Liam snort. "How do you define it?" Liam asks.

"Human biology is based on molecular energy, chemical bonds with the energy coming from electrons changing orbit as they switch from atom to atom. My biology is, of course, magic but... we believe, based on direct quantum energy." He smiles, "even mother does not fully understand it."

"No. I don't. I can reproduce it. But, and, while I'll not quite in the position of a cave men rubbing two sticks together to create fire, and he does not know what is creating fire, it is close to that." Elsa interrupts.

Herman rolls his eyes, "you know more than that, mother."

"Yes, some, but those explanations are even more complex and more... wrong... than anything else, but it is still basically instinctive on my part."

"But," Herman begins, "Life." A pause "My family defines it more as thought, free will if you would, than then we worry about biology."

"Do you know how she created you?" Liam asks.

He grimaces, "Other than with love?" He shrugs and looks at Elsa, she looks back at him, "As she has said, she takes a small portion of her soul, removes it, crystallizes it and places that seed of a soul into the snow and ice that she has created."

Liam looks at Elsa. She shrugs, "that's the simplest, easiest explanation. The words to say how I do it... Do not exist."

Liam nods, "I think I get it. But... she created you..." He looks at Elsa, "how do I say it. How much control..."

"Control does she have over us?" Herman completes the question. Liam nods. "There are two schools of thought among us. One: that we are simply complex puppets with only the illusion of free will. That is only held by a very small number of us. Most of us though…We have are alive and have free will, so we can disobey her."

"I try not to be a tyrant." Elsa says, she sighs, "Although, through the years, I have enforced my decision to conceal my existence."

"Which means we cannot reveal ours."

"That is now changed, Herman. You and my children can reveal yourselves."

"Within the limits of your plan, mother."

She nods, "still things will improve." She looks at Liam, "protecting Antarctica is the primary cause of my actions." She waves her hand to Herman, "Freeing my children, allowing them to be all they can be, is the second reason."

"In how many years?" Herman asks.

She grimaces, "that depends on the rest of world." She waves her hand and an earth globe appears between her hands, "Assuming everything goes perfectly, a couple of years... more likely, around ten to twenty."

"Queen Elsa," Liam hesitantly asks, "How many children?"

She raises an eyebrow, "For temporary, tactical reasons, I am going to be very hesitant to give a definite answer to that question. But" she waves a hand toward Herman, "I will say that there are over four dozen icemen in existence. There are also snowmen, like you saw outside, and others which I will leave to people's imagination."

"Such as that whale this morning?"

She nods, "Yes. But, we are getting far from my goal for this interview, so..."

Author's notes: I have completed 4 chapters, I will be uploading them every couple of days, to give people a chance to read what I have done. After that, I will see what the reaction is. If "blah"... oh well. If you, the reader, want me to explain (write the full story) on some of the outlines of stories Elsa talks about, I will. If you, the reader, want me to continue telling her life history, I will.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

note: extreme violence is mentioned in this chapter.

"My earliest memory is when I was two years old. I blew out the candles on my cake and froze the cake." She smiles, "to stop my crying my mother gave me a piece of chocolate, starting my love of chocolate."

Herman leans in and holds his hand close to his face like he is sharing a secret, "When you are in trouble, bribing her with chocolate is always a good idea," he says out of the side of his mouth.

Everyone in the room giggles/chuckles.

"I can not say my childhood was normal, I was the eldest royal baby and lives of royalty are never normal. I can say that until I was eight years old I had a happy, and when my younger sister Anna was old enough to play with, a very happy childhood." A light sculpture of a little Elsa and little Anna building Olaf appears... and then slowly fades away. "For Anna's second birthday, I gave her my chocolate... well about a quarter of it, she was smaller than me, after all. She loved it, just like me."

"That childhood ended when I was eight. I had a very dangerous accident with my powers. While there was no permanent damage it scared me and, after some well meaning, but cryptically obtuse advise, my father decided that instead of controlling my powers by learn to use them safely, I was to control my powers... by suppressing my power. He was also very afraid about how people would react to my powers."

"He believed that people would reject you?" Liam asks.

She nods. "Yes. And he was basically correct." Sigh, "one of reasons I delayed"

"And delayed, " Herman interrupts.

She nods, "revealing myself was due to that concern."

"To continue, for several years, that strategy did work. With 20/20 hindsight, that was due more to the weakness of my powers then anything else. As time passed, though, my powers grew and grew, and even today they are still is growing. To keep others from knowing about my powers, he isolated me as much as possible as I was growing up, even my beloved younger sister Anna was isolated and not told about my powers."

Liam opens his mouth, then closes it.

"Yes, that didn't make sense, did it? I was happily playing with my powers with Anna and now she does not know about them," She grimaces, "Some of my sisters memory had to be changed as part of that accident. And yes, it was done by magic. There more magic in the world than most know." A small explosion of light and sound appears between her hands, forming a light, not snow, sculpture of young Elsa and Anna laughing and playing. "My mentor Pabbie taught me some of his magic over the years. Since this magic is his, I will not try to explain it." she looks hard at Liam, he nods. The light fades away.

"Most psychologists, when they learn the details of my childhood, are going wonder how I managed to survived it."

She thinks, 'even Dr Freud in 1910 thought that.'

She continues, "It did damage me. Even today, I have a small phobia about crowds, other people touching me, and a, well, fetish, if you will, about hiding things. I survived due to the love of my family, my love of music and my love of mathematics."

"Showing my love of music would be, a bit, strange in this setting," She and Herman look at other and grin, "breaking into song with Herman" She hums a couple of musical notes, Herman hums a counter line, "would be fun, but not appropriate, but I can give you a story that shows my love of mathematics.

"When I was 17, I knew more math, and myth theory, than anybody else in Arendelle. To learn the math that I wanted, with my fathers help, I created alternate id's, male of course, so I could learn via correspondence with various universities. I later continued that pattern as I earned other doctorates " she sees a puzzled look on Liam face. "You're wondering why I'm telling this story?"

He nods.

"In addition to giving a story, that does not have magic in it," She looks at the camera and grins, "It shows how early I learned about creating other identities." She wiggles her fingers at the camera, " All you spy agencies out there... have fun trying to back trace my alternate id's." She giggles. Herman laughs.

"Any questions?" she asks.

"Ah" Liam looks down at his laptop. "It looks like most of the questions from Auckland are about magic and how powerful you are."

She sniffs, "Expected. And questions that I'm not going to answer. Nobody would believe me, anyway. Sooner or later, I'll have to display my power, again. But... The whale I created today weighs over 50,000 tons... consider that."

"And there are some... religious? Theology? Questions."

"The creation of life." A deep heartfelt sigh...

He nods.

"Again, that is a question that has no answer for everyone, so... I will try to answer, but... later in another interview. So, to continue..." The light in the room darkens and the snowflakes stop moving.

A touch of her locket and then, "When I was 18 my parents died when in a shipwreck. If I was male, there would not have been any problems, but since I was female, and Arendelle had an antique constitution and due to the extreme isolation that I was raised with... It was decided that I would not become the reigning Queen until my 21st birthday." The lights return to normal and the snowflakes began to move again.

Her hand rests on her locket... and with a big sigh, "During the coronation ball, my sister and I had an argument" another sigh, "and I lost my temper. My powers ran free." A long pause, Liam starts to say something, but she shakes her head. "Even at the time, I never told the story of that week. But, my sister Anna loved to tell it. If you look for information about the summer blizzard of 1837, you will find her version of the story, generally as a local legend." She smiles, "but, I should warn you... She never told it the same way twice. She was always, depending on who she was talking to, adding, altering, editing, and exaggerating something. She first called that week, Eternal Winter, then Frozen Summer and eventually just the week of Frozen."

"After that week, I was left with a couple of major problems. First: since it was during my coronation, there were representatives of some of the continental powers were in the city and saw/felt my powers. Second: Exodus 22:18: Thou shall not suffer a witch to live. Sooner or later people will use that as a reason to kill me." Sigh, an angry one.

"Ahh, Queen Elsa, how did the people of Arendelle?"

"React to my powers?" she finishes for him. he nods. "Actually that was a welcome surprise, most of the residents, at least, pretended to approve of them. I later found out that the palace servants had a greater influence in the city than I thought." She smiles, "making an early ice skating rink and other fun things helped. But Arendelle was and is a port city. There was always a large transient population of sailors and other people that make their money off them." A large sigh. "they were a different story."

He looks at his laptop, "If you caused a surprise summer blizzard, didn't it damage the plants, houses and other things?"

She smiles, "My powers corrected all that." She reproduces the image of her melting the blizzard and the repairing of the ships in the harbor and the flowers and green grasses of the fields around Arendelle. "At the time, when I had the time to react, I was very surprised that my powers could fix things like that." She shakes her head, "A mistake, without that innocent self-confidence that I could make things better, it was much harder, when I practiced my powers, later, to reproduce that effect."

"Now, about my problems, in addition to what I've already said, I had personal problems. Those mild phobias I mentioned earlier, were... much more powerful then. But my loving sister Anna helped me through them."

A pause, as she narrows her eyes, "Soon, within weeks, ambassadors of various powers began arriving. Some wanted my help in their ambitions to conquer their neighbors or even all of Europe. Some wanted my death. Some just wanted to make trouble, just to see want advantage they could wring out of it. For the next few months I was given a schooling in spying and general skullduggery by total immersion." She laughs, "trying to convince me to leave my home and conquer the world... I never had, or have any ambition to do that." She looks at the camera, "not that I expect some people to believe that," She sighs. "still, with a little luck, maybe..."

She waves her hand, stopping Liam from asking a question.

"After a few months, I made a deal with the British special envoy, I would not interfere with the balance of power of Europe and for that, the British government would pay me a... retainer. They paid me to do what I wanted to do." She smiles, "How much varied from year to year, depending on various things. Since that money was paid to me, I used it in whatever way I needed. At first, of course, most went to helping Arendelle, but... That money became the basis for my personal fortune. As the telegraph began the first web that interconnected Europe and then the world, I used that money to invest in many companies across Europe. My mathematical skills really helped, and I had studied about what is now known as economics since I knew that I would be responsible for Arendelle's budget." A large smile.

"How much?" Richard interrupts.

She glances at him, "The events of today are already going to destabilize the markets, so I'm not going to increase that chaos. Over time, within a few years, most of my wealth will be openly gathered into the company named Fractal."

Richard thinks, 'One of best companies about environmental issues there is. But...'

"The other problem was not as easily handled and eventually I did lose to it. Within weeks of Frozen, priests..., perhaps it is better to call them, religious extremists, mainly foreign, begin to preach against me."

She remembers, as she thinks, 'The bishop agreed out of his friendship with my father to be neutral, even to give me some minor help, but, there were limits that he was not willing to pass.'

"My shows of power," snow and ice sculptures of various people appear, "just reinforced their hatred of me."

She glances at Herman, "to protect me, I created the first iceman, Eric, and a small team, Asa, Ragnhild and Magnus."

"Don't cross Eric, by the way." Herman says, "his power is second only to mothers."

Elsa nods, "I was not sure about how to create life, as my two previous snowmen, Olaf and Marshmallow, were born during the week of Frozen and were created in the spur of the moment during times of intense emotions, not planned. So... Eric is the most overpowered on all my children. Once I knew how to create... the others were not gifted or perhaps cursed like Eric."

"Cursed?"

She nods, "of all my children his connections to me run deep and when I die, he will most likely die as well." She waves her hand at Herman. "He is fully independent of me and will, and can, live without me."

"How long?" Liam asks

"Will I live, or my children?"

He nods and says, "Either, both?"

"In 1850, my mentor Pabbie, when I asked him the same question, could not give me a definite answer... But... I expect to live a long time, even by the standards of civilizations, not personal lifespans." She looks at Herman. "My children? We do not know. While some have died, those deaths were as the result of violence, not age."

Herman nods in agreement.

With a set expression on her face, and her hand around her locket, Elsa begins to speak, "To get back to my problem with Exodus. The religious extremists would incite people, mainly sailors, they always were more superstitious than non-sailors, and caused problems. Some of them were just bigger than normal drunken brawls, but others turned into full scale riots. More the one tried to attack the palace. In 1838 and in 1839 I had to freeze the city to stop the fires from the riots." The room turns red, wickedly crooked spikes begin to form.

A long pause. "Queen Elsa?" Liam asks. Richard shivers as he looks around. The room is getting darker, both with the light and... even the emotions of the ice...

She waves her hand, the one not holding her locket, dismissing the question. Herman moves in front of her, protecting her. She remembers... The height of the riots, leading people to fight the fires, finding a young girl, dying from a beating and gang rape. Her mother, also beaten and raped, for saying to the drunken sailors, that they loved their Queen. The death of the twelve year old child in her arms. 'We named her after the princess, Anna.' And her losing her temper...

"Move Herman, please." He looks back at her, she nods and he moves. Richard focuses the camera on her face. Tears are in the her eyes... also anger... great anger. Elsa gets up, and begins to pace, in an agitated way around the room...

"I could have stopped the riots, even before they occurred. My lessons in espionage gave me the people to spy on the city and ships off shore." She waves her hand at Herman, "my bodyguards and police gave me the agents to arrest those people that would harm my subjects. I could have turned Arendelle into a police state, easily." Her eyes harden. "but... That would have been the first step into becoming a dictator. An Ice Queen."

Her jaw clenches, the both hands are around her locket and are white with pressure, "For a time during the riot, I was the Ice Queen. Only my love for my sister Anna, as she argued against the Ice Queen, stopped me. I only killed one person during that riot, not the dozens that I wanted to." Icicles form around her fists. "I had to protect the citizens of Arendelle, even against myself, that was/is my duty and responsibility, but, in protecting them, I would start down the path of... dictatorship."

With a snarl on her face, she continues, "that was when I made my decision to retreat... I would begin to conceal my powers. If they weren't visible.. then the... the religious extremists would have fewer reasons to attack me and destroy my people." A big sigh as she loosens her fists. "After a huge, horrible argument with Anna, I had the palace servants begin to spread rumors that my powers were fading, that my demonstrations were fake, and I stopped have public shows of power." Her lips twist, "Ohh... over the years, I have used my powers, even in huge ways... but never as publicly showy as I did in those first couple of years, or as I am doing now."

Her pacing slows and the light changes to yellow, the spikes begin to fade, "It was not an overnight solution, even years later, drunken brawls and smaller riots would occur... but I never had to freeze the city again. Some of it was due to the rumors... most, though especially the first few years, was due to the citizens and my police... they knew how close I came to destroying everything, so they became much more aggressive in stopping the brawls before they became riots." She shakes her head, "I made sure that nobody died and civil liberties were not destroyed... It came close at times to Henry II and the Thomas Becket, but it never descended to that level."

"Henry II?" Liam asks.

She stops pacing, a small tentative smile appears for a moment on her lips, only one hand is on her locket, gently holding it, "I forget, most people aren't going to know details in history. Henry II was an English king. He was having problems with the powerful Bishop Thomas Becket. He complained to his henchmen, saying 'Will no one rid me of the turbulent priest?' And later four of his knights obeyed that implied command and killed Thomas Becket."

"Eric's connections with my soul helped... he knew what I wanted and so he made sure that the violence I was set on stopping did not happen." She stops pacing and sits down. "by the time of Queen Elsa of Arendelle's death, the stories of the magic of the first years had faded into a local legend. The people of Arendelle knew the truth, but... the stopped telling strangers and when new rumors started, they squashed them." A pause as she finally lets go off that locket.

"It couldn't have that easy?" Liam asks.

She shrugs, "it was not. I am not mentioning a lot of detail. I was able to convince people that the extreme winter weather was just local oddities due the Little Ice Age, a worldwide cooling that ended around 1850. It did help when I convinced the editors of the 9th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica to write about the local legends and superstitions, totally dismissing any claim that magical events ever happened. Who was going to say that Encyclopedia Britannica was wrong?"

"It must have affected those payments from Great Britain?"

She nods, "It did. I performed some special demonstrations for their special envoy which kept the money flowing. But... even so, the amounts decreased greatly after the Crimean War and stopped in 1872."

"Questions?" She asks Liam.

"Where to start?" He mumbles as he looks down. "Could you explain why you thought that a police crackdown would cause you to become a dictator?"

She nods, "A, singular, police crackdown would not be a problem. The problem was the more I shoved my magic in the face of witch hating people, the more that they would fight back."

"Witch hating?"

"ahh... The last person killed for being a witch, in Scandinavia, was in the year 1800, only 40 odd years in the past at the time of the riots. Not 250 years as is the case now. Culture does change." She grimaces, "So, at the time, every person I punished for rioting, and as Queen of Arendelle, I did approve of the death penalty, created more people that wanted to be a martyr fighting an evil Ice Queen. That ever growing cycle is what I was preventing."

"That sounds like you sentenced multiple people to death, not the one that you mentioned?"

"Hmm... To be clear. That death I mentioned was a death by freezing, in the spur of the moment without a trail." Her eyes harden. "I, personally, saw him being pulled off a young girl, as he was raping her. When she died in my arms a few minutes latter, I froze the leader." She waves her hand. "Death, after a fair trial, is a different matter, at least in my eyes. And since the police were, mainly, arresting people for drunken fighting, most... were punished less severely. Although, by today's standard they were harshly punished."

"How were they punished?"

"That varied, most paid a fine, with the help of their captains, remember most were foreign sailors, and told, if they are in Arendelle again, do not leave their ship. In some cases, where most of the crew of the ship, including officers, were caught in the brawl, the ship was impounded and large fines were paid by the owners of the ships." A thin smile appears, "in a couple cases, no fines were paid and Arendelle gained title to the ships, thus starting a shipping company that I still control. But... in the end, there are mines north of Arendelle that needed workers."

"Hmmm..." Liam begins.

"Another delicate question?" She interrupts with a sneaky smile.

He nods. "you've said that you concealed everything and, and... changed history to suit your plans..."

"How are you to trust what I'm saying now or in the future?" She finishes. He nods.

"That was Anna's argument, when I decided to conceal myself. Once I start... creatively editing the truth, let us say, how are people, that do not know me, trust me." She sighs. "There is no easy answer, except through time. From now on, I must, to gain the trust I seek, tell the truth. I'll willing, in temporary tactical matters, to withhold information, but I'll not going to lie."

"I do not expect people to trust what I'm saying now, but I will prove to people that what I say, I mean. And, since only time and actions will prove my trustworthiness, let us return to your question about dictatorship."

He nods. "ok."

"If I, using my powers, I hurt someone... that person and his family and friends are going to get revenge. So, if I hurt, say, 10 people... 100 people are, now, going to hate and fight me. That cycle of violence can be stopped, at least for a time, by a harsh police state. There are other ways, that sometimes work, but at the time, when I had to make this decision, remember I was only 23 years old and still very cautious about my abilities, magical and otherwise. Soo... I choose to retreat and hide." She shakes her head. "I still believe that was the correct decision at time." She looks at Herman.

"And, I used that rationalization, as a reason for not allowing my children to be free, far too long."

He nods. "Thank you, mother."

"Perhaps, if I used Ragnhild's plan in 1845..." She shakes her head. "But I was still far to weak to make it work then."

"What plan, if you would?" Liam asks.

She looks at Liam, "Her plan was to declare myself Queen of Antarctica and make sure nobody landed in Antarctica without my permission. Basically, similar to what I'm doing now. Just with only a small fraction of the magical power" A snowflake flares into existence. She waves her hand at Herman, "with only much more limited number sons and daughters and with about a milliard of the money and other resources that I will need to succeed. Self-confidence is not one of her problems." A smile. (author's note: Milliard=billionth.)

"I expect some violent repercussions for today's and other planned future actions, which, will start a cycle of violence. Unlike in the 1839, however, my powers and the knowledge of how to use them are greater, so the... unintended side effects, when I defend myself, will be small."

Her eyes narrow and in a firm tone of voice, she declares, "But it is time to make a stand... I've decided that I must protect Antarctica and give my children their chance to live, free. So... I've positioned myself in Antarctica where simply getting to me will be hard and noticeable. Although, I am planning a trip to Sydney and then Geneva in a month or so, to deal with predictable issues that will arise." She shrugs, "I expect attacks on my holdings, like in Arendelle, which is why Eric and his team is there. Other icemen are positioned, elsewhere, for immediate defensive action."

She waves her hand at Herman, "Canute, Alexander and Elizabeth and their teams are ready to counter-attack."

"Joan is the leader of the team outside." Herman adds. "Each team consists of eight of us."

"That sounds like your are preparing to fight the world?!" Liam asks shocked.

She shakes her head. "No, just to defend myself and my own from the world. My hope is that after a couple of displays of power, people will realize that I am only want me and mine to live in peace, helping everybody I can."

She looks at Herman and nods. "Still... a small visible display might be useful... Herman, if you would."

Herman reaches up and removes his human-looking blue eyes. He hands them to Liam. "Open your hand, please." Liam, his eyes shocked wide open, does so automatically. The eyes are placed, carefully in his palm. "Be careful, I've had them for awhile." Liam looks down and the eyes are just high grade glass eyes.

"OK." He pulls out his pistol, opens his mouth, pulls the trigger and blows the top of his skull off. The pieces of ice and snow fly behind him... But as they hit the ice of the floor or wall, they start to levitate off the floor and where they were embedded in the walls, and move back toward where Herman's skull should be. "You know, mother, this would be harder elsewhere." He says while this is happening. His voice, still, comes from a point above his jaw, even though, his lower jaw is the only thing in his skull that is still intact. When the snow and ice pieces of his skull reach him they merge together and rebuild his skull.

He, as this is happening, switches hands with the pistol, points it at Elsa and pulls the trigger.

"Yes." Elsa says, as she looks at the frozen bullet about six inches from her skull. She reaches out, grabs the bullet. It is encased in blue ice, frozen air, like Anna was, and dripping from it is liquid air. "When I was young, one of my favorite saying was 'the cold never bothered me anyway.'" She looks at the bullet rolling between her fingers, liquid air dripping down her hand. "I've found out, though, that absolute zero does bother me. It doesn't hurt me, mind you, it just feels funny." The ice around the bullet fades and liquid air stops dripping from it.

Herman reaches out to Liam. Liam, his eyes still wide, wide open, softly puts the glass eyes in Herman's hand. Herman replaces his eyes with a blink. "Thank you."

She looks at Richard, "You should put on your gloves, Richard. It is still rather cold, by any standard but mine." He shivers at the tone. After he puts on his glove, Elsa hands the bullet to Herman who gives it to Richard. "It is yours to do with as you wish. You should be approached by various individuals wanting that for testing. Please, drive a hard bargain." She smiles, "I will double the amount and donate it to charity. The Red Cross, since I helped organize the Norwegian branch."

She looks at Liam, and then at his feet. Down there is an ice mouse walking on its two hind feet and carrying in its arms Herman's other bullet. "That one is yours, Liam. The same deal as Richard. You probably will not get the amount he will, but, it still should be a respectable amount."

His eyes wide open, Liam reaches down and takes the bullet.

The ice mouse, turns, looks at Elsa, wiggles his whiskers. "Now, vanish, Mickey." The mouse fades into the ice.

If, you the reader, have any questions that you'd like Liam to ask, just mention it. I am trying to cover all angles, but...

Again, If you wish me to expand on any the story outlines mentioned, just ask, and I will see what I can do.

thank you for reading

jeff shelton


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Liam sits in his chair speechless...

Richard, though, looks at Herman and asks, "How in the hell?"

Herman raises an icy eyebrow, "I am a magical being. While there are limits... to my ability to reconstruct myself but... here in Antarctica... is basically the perfect conditions for me. If I did that, say, in the Sahara, I would still be able to fix myself. It would, of course, take longer."

"You wouldn't melt?" Richard asks.

Herman waves to Elsa, "Queen Elsa's magic protects me. I can still melt, but at a very reduced rate."

"It's a more subtle spell than my original effort to protect Olaf from summer heat." A wiggle of fingers and a small cloud appears above Herman's head and flurries start to fall. "That is rather noticeable."

"When I created Eric, I realized that I would need to protect my children from heat in a less noticeable way. The first attempts were," She wiggles her hands and the flurry fades away, "weak, luckily it was the fall in Arendelle by then, so by the next spring I had improved it enough to work through the summer heat of southern Norway."

"From the stories I've heard, summer heat, especially those first couple of years, was... painful." Herman adds. "it's still not pleasant."

Elsa nods. She raises an eyebrow at Richard, "Any other questions?"

He looks at Liam, who is looking at his laptop. Liam shrugs.

"You did not seem to need your eyes to see...?" Richard slowly asks.

Herman removes one of his eyes. "Not really, but having something like this does help. My senses are not limited to human biology." He looks at Elsa, "Although it took a couple of years for her realize it." He replaces the eye.

Elsa smiles, shyly, "yes." She looks at Liam, and realizing he's still not ready, "Which, I suppose is a good enough way to continue with my autobiography."

"A couple of years after the riot, things in Arendelle were quiet enough that winter, that I was able to, finally, begin to research my past and my powers. With some vague hints from Pabbie, and some ancient...items... I discovered in the crypts under the castle, I found the same passage between worlds that the frost giant used in 1316." A touch of her locket.

With a distant look in her eyes, she begins, "With my sister Anna, her husband and some of my children, I entered Jotunheim on January 14, 1842. The mountains there... I've walked Everest, K2, Erebus... others... they make them seem small. One them is over 60,000 feet. Beautiful..." Her lips purse, "dangerous, though... The wolves, eagles, all larger and smarter than here on Earth. The ice serpent," her jaws clench, "I thought I lost Asa to it, but... Kristoff was there. After several dangerous encounters we made it to our goal. Mimisbrunnr. Mimir's Well. The well of knowledge or wisdom, depending on who you ask. Odin sacrificed his eye to gain the privilege to drink from it." A pause... "As I had to sacrifice something to drink from it, as well."

She looks at Herman, "that is where I gained the knowledge of my powers... where I gained the knowledge of that story I told earlier and my powers, mostly. One of the tricks I learned was that my children do not have to be bound to human limits."

She looks at Liam, "even today, as I dig deeper and deeper into the magic or the science, whichever you prefer, behind my powers, ideas and insights occur as I think about that drink of water." She sees a confused look on Liam face. "you can not explain everything about, say, math, to a child, which I was, for all intents and purposes at the time. As I learn... gain in wisdom... concepts that I could not understand, even conceive of before, become clearer."

"Ahh..." Liam begins. "Are you going to explain about Jotunheim now?"

She shakes her head. "That requires a digression into alternate world quantum mechanics theory, something, I'd rather do in a separate interview. Just accept that there are other worlds out there. They are hard to reach... and most of the passages, over time, have been closed or destroyed. Even the passage I used, I've resealed and monitor closely."

"Herman," Liam begins, "you said that your senses are not limited to what humans see." He nods. "What are your limits?"

Herman rubs his chin in thought. "That is rather difficult to say. I normally use about twice the electromagnetic spectrum that humans use. Meaning I can see into the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum. With effort I can move my perceptions up and down the spectrum, but... the farther away from visible light, the harder it is to... see things normally. Meaning, that yes, I can see radio waves, but understanding them... that's hard. So, unless something unusual is happening, I don't do it."

"What about your other senses?" Richard asks.

Herman shrugs, "They also are similar to humanity, generally, there are some... some weirdness though. My senses are more wide ranging than humans, but as with sight, the further away from the human norm, the harder it is to adjust to reality. So, for example, I can hear across a wider range of frequencies, but, something like bat echo location requires a lot, and I mean a lot, of practice."

"You've tried it?" Liam asks, surprised.

"Not me. Bjorn did it. It just takes too much time to perfect and you've got to practice with it... a lot."

"Why are telling the world this?" Richard interrupts, "I mean, you are planning some type of military encounters, and keeping this secret would help you?"

Herman shrugs, "Yes, but... Well." He sighs, "two reasons really, one: Queen Elsa's trust issues also reflect on us, her children. So... telling the truth, even if it causes some tactical problems, is something we are going to have to do. Second: We have war gamed it out, and basically, in the first encounters nobody will believe it and the later encounters... we'll deal with it. Basically, our opponents will have to react to our abilities and... well, they are going to have more problems than we will over their knowing about our abilities."

"Ahh" Liam begins, "Exactly what rank or such do you have? Elsa said that your are her aide, but the way you've been answering questions?"

"Today, for this interview, I am her aide. Joan, the leader of my squad, wanted to be here, but she is needed outside using her powers to clean up the oil spill. Officially her code name is white queen, and I am her pawn."

"When I created Joan, Herman and the others, I used a chess motif as the pattern, so all of my military icemen have chess piece alternate names." Elsa interrupts. (author's note: I tried to make Tafl fit, but chess is much more well known.)

"As far as my relative rank or power goes... Joan, for example, has a limited version of Queen Elsa's snow and ice generating powers, I do not. All I have, permanently, is Queen Elsa's basic protection spell from heat and a spell that makes my ice bones stronger than normal ice." His eyes narrow, "but, I think you meant more of why I am giving opinions that are different than Elsa's. I am some sort of spokesman or such?"

Liam nods, "Yes, that is closer to what I meant."

He grimaces, "For this interview, I suppose the answer is, with conditions, yes. Everyone knew that I would be here and probably answering questions. The others made sure that I knew their opinions and that they wanted them expressed. On a more long term basis... Joan, Canute, Alexander, Elizabeth, Niord and Frigga...will find ways of making their opinions known. Joan has told me that she wants a separate interview with you or one of the other reporters outside sometime tomorrow, where she'll make her opinions known."

"Let them explain their positions, Herman."

He nods, and grins, "Alexander has made that perfectly clear, mother."

"Ahh, could you give us some info?" Liam asks.

Elsa explains, "They are the leaders of my ice and snowmen. The first four are the squad leaders of my, limited, military force of one platoon. Niord leads the team that handles my financial holdings on a daily basis. Frigga is the head of my research and development division." She smiles, "My children do have their own ideas and personalities. Now that I've revealed myself, they will find ways to make themselves known. I sure Olaf has already called his favorite station to set up an interview."

"That's going to be fun to watch." Herman grins.

Elsa giggles and smiles, a large happy one, back, "Yes, it will." The smile fades into a more somber expression, "Due to tactical reasons, some of them might not make themselves known for awhile, and they might be more evasive than I am. I am sorry about the limits upon what they might say, but there are reasons for it."

"I think that covers that subject well enough for now, so."

A pause then, Elsa says, "In 1844 my sister Anna gave birth to her first child, a son named Kristopher. That caused an increase on the political pressure for me to marry and have an heir."

She looks at the camera, "I suppose... I will be very open here... I have never wanted a heterosexual relationship. Which, of course, was not very acceptable at time. Although, on a list of problems, at the time, my lesbianism was low of the list. My Powers, then, just the simple fact that I was female were the two overwhelmingly major problems. Remember in the 1840's I was on the other side of the Women's Rights movement. As Queen, most of the laws against women did not apply to me, but, the social influence of those laws against women's rights did cause me immense, if normal political, problems. But still..." She sighs.

Her lips quirk up, "one of my spies told me a story about a German prince and suitor that visited around this time. He said, semi-privately, to one of his friends...'So, she doesn't like men. It doesn't matter. She never had me between her legs. She'll love it, they all do.' The same spy told me about his habit of raping one his servant girls. She, of course, had to tell him that she loved his..." A snarl, "attentions, otherwise... bad things would happen. After that...there was a small adventure for Asa as she helped her to escape him." She smiles, "Today, her descendants are among my strongest supporters. His...the male line died out in WWI."

Another sigh... "Still I am a responsible person and and providing an heir is something that I had to do. Anna, finally, came up with a suggestion that eventually, somewhat... worked. After a long search I found a second son to a Russian grand dukedom that was in a similar problem to mine. He did not want a heterosexual relationship either."

She wiggles her hands and says in a sad voice, "He, Michael, wasn't a perfect man, weak really." A light sculpture of him appears, "But... there were many worse choices. At the time, many royal marriages were done for political reasons, not love. We were, for a royal couple, reasonably compatible. All we needed to do was to stand together in public and not have any major private fights." She shrugs, "When you don't sleep together that's relatively easy to achieve."

"On July 18, 1847, I married him." She sighs, "as a relationship goes, it wasn't much. For formal reasons, we sleep in the same bed on our wedding night, but that was the only time we did. He slept in a different room after that. He had his lovers, I had mine. So long as he was available for public appearances and he did not spend too much on his lovers, I did not pay attention to him, really." Another deep sigh. "A mistake that."

"Still, that sham of a marriage, while it lessened the political pressure, did not solve my problem. I needed an heir." She smiles, "After experimenting with various things, my lover and a male donor, found that a turkey baster worked. In 1850 I became, after, many, many tries, pregnant." She touches her locket. With a vary sad tone, she continues, "I had a miscarriage after five months."

She waves away a question from Liam, "After seeing how the midwife reacted, I visited Pabbie. He..." She sighs, and with a catch in her throat. "confirmed several things that I had feared were happening. My body, my biology," She waves down her sides, "was, and still is, changing. My powers... They had to adapt my body so I could use them safely. The more I push the limits, the more I change. That is when I learned that I would never have a child and I would live a very long time."

She looks at Liam, "Well?"

"So, You have no biological children?" Liam asks.

A pause...she thinks, 'In-vitro fertilization and surrogate mothers...how I wish...'

"At this time I will not answer that question." A raised eyebrow, "Which, of course, is an answer...but... That is, from my point of view, a complicated response. And... if I did have biological children, they might want to have a normal life."

Liam looks at his laptop, grimacing. He clears his throat, "Queen Elsa...Surely, there was more problems with your, ahh, lesbianism than what you said."

She shrugs, "Some, but... male to male relationships were what everyone in power was afraid of and looked out for. Men were afraid that homosexuality was an attack on their manliness and that, manliness, had to be protected, no matter what, and since men wrote the laws, the laws made sure about that. Lesbianism, mainly, at the time, was felt to be a problem, but a much smaller problem. Many felt that it was a problem that would be solved, once I had a male lover, like the story earlier indicated. Protecting me, also, was the fact that I was a reigning Queen and, I had powers." Snow forms and dances around her. "so long as I was discreet there, was rumors of course. My enemies spread stories about my personal life... but," she shrugs, "compared to their hatred of my powers and just the fact that I was female... their hatred of my sex life was a pale, minor thing."

She giggles, "According to some of their... propaganda: In one sentence I was a man hating lesbian, in the next sentence I was a man loving whore. I never could understand the logic."

"ahh, Are you willing to name... names?"

She shakes her head, "No. While I approve of free press," She nods to Liam and Richard. "I do feel that there are limits. Unfortunately, I feel that those limits are being broken by some of the... more extreme reporters out there. I consider that type of information to be private and will not answer those types of questions."

Liam's eyes flick to Herman. "your... children have two sexes... Ahh...Is that...?"

"Is it for real or just a whim on my part?" She asks.

He nods, blushing, slightly.

She looks at Herman. He shrugs. A small grimace. "Hmmm... I am very tempted to decline to answer this question now. But..." she rubs her jaw, "At first, it was just a whim. I... Just felt more comfortable around female personalities, so I made some of my children female for that selfish reason." A small laugh. "I did not really consider... anything about it, until Anna had her son. Then... then, I started to look into it. Only to find that there was two separate... things...no... goals I had to work toward. The first and the one I found that my children had already solved was... can they feel... sexual pleasure."

"That I, instinctively solved, when I first created them. Going back later and trying to reconstruct the method..." She shakes her head. "Was surprisingly hard." She looks hard at Liam, "I'm not, and Herman can choose to speak on his own, going to get into the physical and metaphysical details."

Herman shakes his head. "Porn never really interested me and most of us feel the same. The only ones that might feel different... Well... that is for them to say, not me."

"As far as, the other goal. Can my children reproduce? I... At the time, my knowledge was not capable of that goal." Elsa's mouth twists and she shakes her head. "Oh, I tried, but..." She sighs, "It was not until 1935 that I... received one of the most pleasant, and most... complex surprise of my life." She pauses. "And, I think that I will leave that story at that point for now. I will return to this story when I get to the 1930's and 40's, as that was painful generation, in which, the birth of my first grandchild was the only good news I had for over a decade." Her eyes mist over, her hand grips her locket, hard... 'and even that good news ended in death...' she thinks.

After a deep breath, Elsa says, "To continue. The solution to the problem of an heir was: I, with the agreement of Anna, Kristopher, when he was older, and after overcoming the surprising resistance of Anna's husband, via the ancient Roman way, decided to adopt Kristopher as my heir. The adoption would not become final until his 21st birthday."

Elsa sighs, "Ahh... Things generally from 1850 to 1875 were a very pleasant time for me. Oh," She waves her hand in a negligent manner, "politically, it was intense, as I worked for Women's Rights, economic rights, even began my work with pre-WWI pacifism and peace movements. But, personally," She smiles, "it was one of the best times in my life."

"As far as my children goes", she continues, "In 1857 Frigga was born to help me as I explored magic and science. In 1867 John was born to help me with my growing financial holdings."

"The two exceptions, to this generation of time, were the death of my husband in 1853 and a magical war I fought in 1866. My husband, officially, died in a hunting accident. Really, he died due to a lovers triangle." She grimaces as she thinks, 'damned Hans lookalike. Michael had to prove he was independent of me, so, the more I tried to shove him away, the more Michael clung to the scum.'

"Love..." She begins. "Michael lived long enough to tell one of my servants, that even though Johannes killed him, Michael still forgave him and still loved him. Due to that I could not even try him for murder and could only exile him." she shakes her head. "Love... Never underestimate the power of that emotion." a pause, "Still... he was, in addition to his other bad habits, a thief. So, when I exiled him, I had, against custom as he was the son of count, his baggage searched and some items were found. He, again, in difference to my husband's wishes, was only sentenced to be the jail's custodian, nothing worse. Of course, in a couple of months, Johannes bad habits surfaced again, but this time... That love triangle ended in his throat being cut."

A grimace, "and by bad habit, I do not mean his homosexuality. It was his inability to it in his pants ... his desire to be the center of multiple love triangles, not a single stable relationship."

Elsa looks off into the distance.

"Queen Elsa?" Liam asks.

She shakes her head, "sorry, I was thinking about how to tell the story of my war in 1866." A snow sculpture of Elsa working in an early laboratory appears. "In my arrogance and ignorance, I was experimenting trying to learn other... magics, when a sorcerer in another, alternate universe, was trying to summon a monster to help him destroy his enemies. Our spells crossed... and I was teleported across alternate universes."

"Oh..." a moving snow, ice and light show begins between her hands, showing Elsa, with a 12 or 13 year old girl, with long brown hair and short fur on her face, beside her as they are leaving a frozen misshapen castle. Elsa, then, leading an army of icy beasts, bears and wolves mainly, with her riding an icy reindeer against an army of misshaped fur covered humanish warriors. Her touching an evil looking short black fur covered human, with pointed ears on his head, and encasing him in ice. "The war began while enough, I captured the sorcerer, who was executed after a... fast but basically fair trail, and placed a good person on the throne." Elsa places an icy crown on the head of the young woman that was with her earlier, standing next to the girl is an older, 50ish gray haired and scarred warrior, with icy prosthetic lower right arm and both lower legs.

"The fire elemental that the sorcerer was trying to destroy was more difficult to destroy, but it was done." A wall of flame lead by a 20 foot tall flaming man marches toward Elsa. Above her, being born, is a rolling, twisting and howling man-killing blizzard of snow. The two forces, fire and ice collide...

"The problem was finding my way home." A twisted smile appears on her face. "An infinite choice without any references..." the show between her hands fades away. She grips her locket. "H... An entity contacted me, offering to show me the way home. A trap, obviously, but the only way home. After... after several tests, I found my way to Jotunheim. I opened the passage to Earth... Eric, due to his connection to me, knew what I was doing and he and his team came though the passage to help me." Her hands grip the locket. Her eyes change, tears fill them. "And, I thought I was free, hugging Eric in joy, when... the entity... destroyed Magnus's soul. Obliterated it... totally."

She, holding in her tears, thinks, "I will not bow to my mystical grandmother Hel... I will not start a new ice age. I will not create Snowball Earth...' Her icy anger fills her...

After a pause, "Well?" she asks Liam.

He looks at his laptop and purses his lips at the questions... "According to what I'm being told, you were known as a very liberal ruling Queen." Elsa nods and smiles. "Does... Are..your plans still liberal?"

"Very cautious question there, Liam." she states as she smiles. "Someone is looking at my official biography online. Whoever gave you that one, must remember the condition of the time. Working toward helping women's right was liberal." A pause.

"I was called liberal when I tried to give women the right to vote, the right to own property, and even the basic right to be an adult!" Her jaws clinch... She continues, "My personal habit of choosing my personal maidservants from former prostitutes, and then, helping them, training them, so they could marry well, give them money so they could start new business's was very, very upsetting." She smiles, "the arguments... with my minsters when I started that...even Anna did not really like that one, but she came around." Her smile grows. "They could hear them in Oslo, but I still did it."

"I was called liberal when, the dock workers went on strike. Instead of having the police arrest the leaders and hang them, I went to the docks, sat down and helped them organize their union. There is a reason the Norwegian Labor Party was created in Arendelle."

"I was called liberal when I helped organize, and gave some of its start up money to the Norwegian Red Cross. I gave Henry Dunant and Gustave Moynier some of the money they needed to organize the first Geneva Convention."

"Liberal... Make sure of your definition of that word. Mine... is no doubt different than," her hands waves dismissing the question and its author, "the person that sent you that question."

She, holding in a giggle, thinks, 'I do not think I'll tell them about the letters to Marx, even if they were under a different male name...'

"I noticed that your show stopped after the crowing and you did not show who helped you or what you did then?" Liam asks.

Elsa nods. "I stopped the show for two reasons. First: The answer is part of the discussion about alternate universes. And second: There are intense personal private reasons that I do not wish to share."

"I think," Liam begins, "I would like an explanation for that policy of yours?"

"Oh, that," Elsa answers, "It began as the riots started. I tried to find out how to stop the sailors from getting drunk and starting to fight. I found that they, generally, when they got off the ships, they wanted to get drunk and get laid...then start fighting. And...nothing I could try would stop that behavior. So... I instituted some stricter regulations over the bars, trying to improve them. Stop them from being pest-holes, really. I tried to do something for the girls... the prostitutes, but the resistance was too much."

She grimaces, "But... I had to do something... And since soo much of Arendelle tax income came from the bars and the boardinghouses, ie brothels, my options were few. My powers, and the reputation they get me, meant turning to charities, which were almost entirely religious based, was not an option. All they would think was that I was trying to insert witches into them, and the girls would have accidents...fatal ones, most likely."

Big sigh... "The damned pimps knew that they had me over a barrel. Hurt them and they would egg on the sailors even more, but I had to, HAD TO," major emphasis, "do something. Agnes, one of the girls, finally gave me a method to do something. When the new ships came in I would, with a squad of police, be on the docks welcoming the sailors. I would then stand and talk to the citizens of Arendelle, while standing in front of the worst of the dockside bars or brothels. In order to get me away, so customers would spend money with them, the other pimps and bar owners would... convince... the offending person to change his habits."

"But, before that, I had to" Her voice hardens, "pay the bastards, in gold, for the girls." A quick smile, "Not that all the girls stayed. The level of education, deportment and cleanliness I demanded, and still demand, was more than some could do. They, unfortunately, left and restarted to live the life that they knew. But, for the ones that stayed... after a few months, a year maybe, a marriage, to the middle class, could be arranged, or the gift of money to start their own business was an option as well." Her voice saddens, "some could not adjust and I had to found a house to take care of them. And, sadly, some committed suicide."

A pause.

Liam picks at his chin, thinking, "Magnus, one of your icemen died."

She nods.

"How many of them have you lost?"

Her hand grips her locket. "Just Icemen... Ten have died. One is lost in the multiverse. I think I can rescue him, but opening that portal... Will have to wait... if everything goes my way, maybe in twenty years, it is just too dangerous to open that portal on Earth. And I've lost one grandchild." A wan smile appears, "Luckily, over the years, my powers and my ability to protect them have improved. The flamethrower attacks that killed three of them, would be survivable for Herman, nowadays." She waves her hand at him.

He grimaces, "Yes... Maybe... under the right conditions. It still would be painful and time consuming to recover from which would allow other attacks that could kill me. Joan, now, it would, at best, distract her."

"Your other children?"

Elsa smiles, "I think I will decline to answer that question, sorry, Liam. And I will not explain further."

A long pause...

Elsa sighs, looks at the ceiling, "I dislike talking about this time period. But... I must, MUST be honest... so..."

"But... I've rehearsed this... many times, and I've always dithered and backtracked..." She shakes her head, tears forming at the corners. Her hands grip the throne.

"I want to talk about the good times, the great times, the funny times, even if at the time, they weren't funny. I want to talk about Kristoff teaching Anna and I how to ski." A snow sculpture of Anna going head over heels appears. "I want to talk about the... the look of pure joy on the face of Kristopher when he opened his Christmas presents. "A light sculpture of a young child face, smiling with joy appears. "I want to talk about Kristoff's state dinner surprise."

Herman smiles and claps his hands. "that one is great!"

Joan looks at Herman, her lips curl. "Men."

Seeing the look on Liam and Richard face, Elsa says, "During a state dinner, Anna's husband, who she had been quarreling with earlier in the day, ate in a very loud and messy way... then as everyone was looking with disapproval at his behavior, he picked his nose and ate the booger." She smiles, "it was very embarrassing at the time. And even more embarrassing was the next morning when I had to explain their... loud and obvious makeup sex..." A big sigh. "Now... it a funny moment in life, then..."

"but, I dithered again..." She says as she takes a deep breath...

"The fact that I would live... for a long time, caused me and my sister Anna, to begin some long term planning. Plans..." she shakes her head. "the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, and women as well... Gang aft agley..." She grips her locket, "Anna and I had plans..."

She raises from her throne and begins to walk around the room. The temperature in the room drops... the light changes color into a deep, deep blackish red...

"On November 17, 1875... My sister Anna and her husband Kristoff died in a railroad accident in Oslo." The winds outside the tower begin to howl. Snow pellets form in the room and begin to swirl around the room.

"He died instantly, trying to save her. Anna...they were visiting their second son who was living there." Her voice catches, tears form, falling as icy drops down her checks.

"She was 56... we thought... we planned...for decades more time..."

Liam and Richard look at each other... They look at Herman. He looks very, very concerned, as he licks his lips.

Her jaws clench. "She lived... long enough..." The wind howls outside...

Joan, she looks very similar to the picture of Joan of Arc in Arendelle's castle, appears at the entrance. She is wearing an ice dress as well, and has an ice covered tablet in her left hand. A blizzard is growing behind her. "Queen..." she starts to say, but stops as she processes what she sees. A flick of time and a flick to Herman. "Damn... She never..." A flick, "Eric?"

"I got there...flying on the winds of a blizzard..."

The tablet in the throne flicks, a hologram of Eric appears. He looks similar to Elsa's father. He says, in a beautiful operatic quality tenor voice, "She's opening up emotions that she's locked down, since the day John died..." His concern is obvious. Holograms of Olaf, Marshmallow and an icewoman with beautiful, if severe, features, Frigga, also appear.

"We had time..." Elsa cries out... "time to say goodbye..."

Time freezes...

Thank you for reading

jeff shelton


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Due to real life and a desire to use a beta to improve my writing, it will be at least 2 weeks, but more likely a month before I post again. Sorry.

NOTE: The computer stats I use in this chapter are...wiggles hand... are flexible. This set in 2050. IF someone wants to convince me that I need to change them, I'll be reasonable.

Time unfreezes...

"Hug her!" Eric commands. "Love, Elsa... remember... LOVE!" The others echo that command.

Herman and Joan move and hug Elsa. She, with tears flowing down her face, grabs them.

Other ice and snowmen appear at the entrance, enter, and join the group hug.

The snowmen look similar to, but different than, Olaf. They are taller than him, about five feet or so. They have icy arms like Herman's, not sticks. Instead of pieces of coal down their middle, they have different colored semiprecious crystals. Their heads are more human-like than Olaf's, with glass eyes like Herman, but no carrot, but they still look closer to Olaf, than Herman. They have no feet and appear just to slid along the floor. Some are dark colored, some being close to black. They have been sucking up the oil off the ground and storing it inside them, before dumping the oil in ice containers made by Joan's powers.

Liam and Richard stay where they are, Richard moving the camera around the room, getting everything he can on film.

The winds outside begin to slow...

The snow pellets in the room vanish...

The lights return to normal.

The hug breaks up. Elsa, rubbing her checks, tries to speak.

"Shush, mother," Joan says, still very concerned. "We've gone over this many times, why?"

Elsa looks at Joan, "Why?" She glances at Richard and his camera. "I must have the trust of the world... And if that means a confession on tape, so be it. And... Not getting emotional about the death of my beloved sister... would be a lie." A flicker of a smile. "As Eric said, I decided to unleash my emotions about that day, about the couple of years afterward..." Her eyes close, tears form...

"And about my attempt at suicide."

"You could have warned us!" That comes from at least three people in the room or from the holograms.

She shakes her head. "It had to be real. I could not practice it. So, I told nobody." A small smile, "I even managed to conceal it from Eric." She glances at his hologram, and shyly smiles.

"I thought something was up, mother. But you did succeed." He says.

She looks around and smiles, "thank you, all." She places her hand near the hologram of Olaf.

"You need a warm hug, Elsa." Olaf says.

"Yes, I do."

His stick arms reach out and move through her. "Zen hugs aren't as good, but they are what I have, for now."

Elsa hugs his hologram. "I will be there in a few weeks and we'll hug then."

Olaf nods and his hologram fades out.

Elsa looks at Marshmallow's hologram, he is still wearing Elsa's old tiara, btw, and says, "be calm."

He nods. "calm, yourself." He fades away.

"Frigga," Elsa nods toward her.

"Mother that was not planned." Frigga says in a severe voice.

One side of Elsa's mouth twitches. "How has things been going, otherwise, Frigga?"

The tablet creates another hologram, one full of stats and charts. "Reaction is within acceptable ranges. The first 'I love Elsa' site and first 'I hate Elsa' site appeared with two minutes of the start of the interview. There are more I love sites, currently up, than the other. They all are personal sites, but, that will change within the hour."

Elsa nods.

"Hacking... So far, not a problem. They are realizing that the mainframe I have is" Frigga smiles, "better than theirs."

Everyone in the room smiles as well.

"There are couple of new people trying to get past my blocks that might be good enough to contact. Otherwise, nominal."

"I'll leave that to you. You'll be expanding, so choose wisely." Frigga nods as she and the charts fades away.

"I WILL be monitoring, Mother." Eric says as he fades away.

A deep breath. A wave of her hand toward the door. "Now, back to work for you." She sits down on her throne. "And me."

Joan nods and says, "very well, mother." She turns to her team, "OK, things are under control." The others leave the room.

"Joan?" Elsa asks, after it is clear Joan is not moving.

"Things are going well enough, mother." Joan smiles, "I think I can spend a few minutes with you."

A small giggle and shake of her head, "very well. A few minutes." Her eyes unfocus, a blink... refocus on Joan, "it is going to well outside." That was not a question.

Joan nods. "We caught everything soon enough. It's just time consuming, sucking up all the oil and cleaning everything. The water booms and pumps are catching more than I hoped. We'll be able to introduce the replacements for the dead ecology as planned."

"New design. Frigga modified the planned ones, once we knew the details of the spill. Hmmm... yes, it looks like it will be a few minutes before you need to make a new tank to store more of the mess. Although... the reporters outside are going to ask questions."

Joan waves her hand at the entrance. "They'll live. A few minutes with you are worth far more to me than them." She looks around. "Everything is going well, here, mother?"

Elsa nods, "yes, generally." She sighs, "I..." She looks at the camera. "I am sorry for the emotional display a few minutes ago. The death of my sister Anna was the worst day of my life. IT is not something that I..." she slumps in the throne. "I really wish I did not have to speak about, but, I must." she says in a small, dead voice.

"Ahh," Liam nods, "I understand."

"Perhaps," Elsa says. "But, I am forgetting myself." She shakes her head, trying to clear it. "Joan, Liam Black of the New Zealand News. Liam, my daughter Joan."

Joan and Liam nod at each other. "And Richard Parker, of course" Elsa smiles at him.

Richard says, "Hello."

"Hello, Richard." Joan replies.

"Now" Elsa says in a false, bright tone. "Now... to continue."

"Wait a minute, mother." Joan interrupts. "There is a couple of things that have come up."

Elsa rises an eyebrow, "Yes?"

"First," Joan waves a hand and beside Liam and Richard a two small ice tables each with a glass of ice appears. "you did not offer our guests refreshments."

Elsa blinks, nods, "I am sorry, Liam and Richard, I did forget." A wiggle of her fingers and water appears in the glasses, as well as a glass of ice water for her. After a slip, she says, "that is chemically pure water."

Her eyes narrow. "The other thing that you were going to point out is the other humans outside are going to be challenged by a lack of food."

Joan nods. "You sealed the buildings that were already here this morning. Our plan was to keep them sealed until the negotiations were completed, or at least, until some sort of agreement can be reached. They did spend a fair amount of money on this... mess and they'll want to recover that money from us."

"And those buildings were where the food was stored."

Liam, his eyes wide, as he realizes the situation. "And shelter?"

"Why do think I built this tower? The buildings environment will be acceptable, if a bit cool." Elsa replies. "Well... also, this castle will also house the replacement oil workers that are already on the way."

"Fractal?" Richard asks.

Elsa nods, "We had the best offer. I just did not pay the bribes necessary to get the contract. Sooner or later, something like this would happen, and I did not see any reason to put off this... plan any more."

"Power?" Liam asks.

"hmmm... After this interview is over, I will build a plant outside. The raw, non ice, material is being separated out by the snowmen outside." She shrugs, "It's not going to be functional unless I'm around it, as I will be supplying the raw energy. The plant will transform that energy into something your devices can use."

"For longer use, the Fractal team and their ship have all the necessary materials with them." Joan adds. "but, while they have food with them, there isn't that much extra here. Most of the people have a snack or two with them, but nothing that will last the week it will take Fractal's ship to get here."

Elsa nods, "I noticed that earlier and, while you were busy, I called Troll and they have loaded up a plane and they will parachute food and other supplies... in about six hours." (Author's note: There is an actual research station in Antarctica called Troll, along with Troll mountains and they do belong to Norway.)

Joan opens and closes her mouth. "And you were waiting until the interview was over to tell me."

Elsa nods. "There is note on the computer, but..."

"I was busy, and there was no special emphasis placed on it."

"And?"

Joan grimaces, "And it was a test of us and our planning. We failed. How long ago did you notice?"

Elsa smiles, "Long enough to make sure that there will be no problems. The plane includes some medical supplies and other possibly useful items. Oh... I suppose I could have done it a different way, but, this gives Troll something to do."

"Troll" Joan says. She and Elsa look at each other and smirk. "That will be a surprise for people." She raises an eyebrow, "North Mountain?"

"Unchanged. I'll hold that as another surprise."

"Surprise?" Liam asks.

"I think I'll let other people comment on it, Liam. It will make more sense in a couple of weeks, after I visit McMurdo and..." Elsa smiles, "Surprises are good for people, so, I'll leave it at that."

"That sounds..." Liam says.

Elsa, Joan and Herman smile. "You'll see. It's not ominous or anything like that, it is just... fun. I like to build things. When the University of Zurich, finally, allowed female students in 1866, I applied for and received in 1870 a degree in Architecture, which I've renewed every or often, since then. "

After hearing this... Elsa's servants in Troll turn off the pure magic devices that Elsa developed and placed years ago... The clouds part and the Winter Palace stands revealed.

"Now," Elsa glances at Joan. Her face freezes as she is obviously thinking about a bad time.

Joan moves next to her and places a hand on Elsa's shoulder. So does Herman.

"to... begin again." The rooms temperature cools and the lights change to red. But. It's not a bad as it was.

"My beloved sister Anna died..." Elsa rubs her face, trying to hide her tears. She grabs her locket as she continues, "I managed to get to her before she died. We managed to say good-bye." Her voices cracks and breaks as she speaks.

Joan's hand grips her stronger.

"And... I was lucky, Eric held me together long enough for me to get to the mountains, before I lost it." Her voice drips with icy grief.

"But... that winter is still remembered in Arendelle as one of the worse in history." sigh... "I... I was unless for weeks afterward." Elsa buries her head in her hands.

"Mother?" Joan asks.

Elsa grips Joan's hand, hard and looks at her. "I'll be... better." A pause.

She looks at Liam, "For most of the next couple of years, I... I did what was needed. I signed what was placed in front of me... But, I could not tell you what I signed afterward."

"Queen Elsa?" Liam asks.

Elsa shakes her head, "As planned... plans... On July 18, 1877, I abdicated the throne of Arendelle in favor of my adopted son Kristopher. I then retired to a chateau in the mountains." Her eyes close.

In a very shaky voice, "Anna and I... we were to spend years there..."

Herman places his hand on Elsa's shoulder.

Eric's and Olaf's holograms appear.

"Elsa?" they both say.

She takes a deep breath. "I decided to commit suicide." an uptick of her lips. "The first attempt was...a joke really. Just a confirmation that... I..." She shakes her head. "If only I listened to you, Olaf, and you, Eric. But I ignored you and everyone..." She says as she looks at them. "things..."

A gulp, then, "The second attempt was more serious, but... My instinct to live was greater than the my will to die. My powers froze the explosive before it could..." she says in a weak, dead voice.

"A third attempt... A device that would cause the fiery explosion while I was asleep..." Her eyes close, tears squeeze out. Joan and Herman hug her.

"John... John ignited the device. He committed suicide..."

A long pause as she buries her face in Joan's chest.

"That... That.." She tries to speak, than another pause. "I realized than that I had to live, for my children."

She wipes her eyes of tears. "Once... Once I was willing to look beyond my grief, finding things to do was easy." A deep breath and hugs from Joan and Herman occupy a couple of minutes. "and then, I could wall off my grief... Walls that I've destroyed for this..."

A full body shake, another sip of water and then, "But... before I continue." She looks at Liam, "what questions?"

"That..." Liam says, "give me a minute to decide. Besides, I think that you need some time."

Elsa nods. "yes...thank you."

A couple of minutes pass as Liam looks and manipulates his laptop.

Liam takes a deep breath, "You've... Trust. You are doing this, telling... Ah. There has to be something, something more than you just declaring Antarctica is now yours."

Elsa nods. "Yes. If I was just..." She waves her hands toward the doorway, "seizing Antarctica, there is no real overwhelming reason for trust. All that matters then is might." She shrugs. "I have the might. I will prove it. Trust has some affect... especially when the deals are made. But overwhelming power can and will impose it's own trust."

A long look and she eyes narrow, "Remember when I spoke about the Mimir's Well?"

Liam nods.

"That helped me learn...great and terrible knowledge. I and my children, especially Frigga, developed that knowledge." she taps her head. "Hmmm...which example to choose...

Elsa nods, "I've mentioned Jotunheim several times. This is not an explanation. but there is some logical results of this world being in a multiverse. If there are alternate earth-like worlds, and if I can build passages between them, then, I can allow," she points at Liam, "people to use them. Which given how overcrowded and how we have misused this world is... that is something that needs to be done."

Liam nods. "yes. The opening up of Antarctica's resources was..."

Elsa interrupts, "A limited, poorly planned, attempt solve that problem. I had plans to introduce some of this technology in a limited controlled way, but the cancellation of the Antarctica treaty was the last straw, after close to a hundred years of counting straws..." Elsa says, in a very disgusted voice. "I want to open up those worlds. Oh, there are some technical problems that need to solved, and some safety issues, but the knowledge is there to fix those problems, the rest is simply engineering and practice."

She sighs, and with a hard voice, "But... if there is conflict, how can I? If there is distrust... People will misuse what I'm offering."

Seeing the puzzled look on Liam face, she explains, "I would place limitations on what could be done." A small smile appears, "I am an environmentalist, remember. Some might even call me an extreme environmentalist." She points to the group of humans trying to look into the room. "And those worlds would have a virgin ecology. I'm not going to open up a world that has other humans, or other intelligences for exploitation. I will define intelligences, by the way."

Liam grimaces and nods.

"If people distrust me, they will test those limits... And I would have to respond. If, however, there is trust, or something close to it, than those limits can be... I can be reasoned with."

"I think I understand." Liam says.

"Good. Because that it only one example, there are other... technologies that I have, that I can release within months, not the years that opening up the multiverse will require, that will change the world."

She points to her tablet. Frigga's hologram appears. "That's not even the one that will have the most... consequences. Frigga's projects are even more far reaching." Frigga smiles and nods, silently. "I want that change to be peaceful. But... there will be tremendous changes. People will attack me. That technology will..." She grimaces, "will alter the balance of power, and the people in power, now, will try to stop me." Frigga fades away.

"That... how sure are you?"

She sighs, "should I answer that question now or later? There is no right way... " She nods. "Very well, a partial answer now, understanding that I more complete one will happen later?"

Laim nods."That's fine."

She nods and turns to Richard. "Richard?"

"Yes?" He answers in a tentative voice.

"Since," a small smile appears on her face, "you appear to be better at computers than Liam, what makes a supercomputer?"

"Well... you need superconductors..." He looks at her tablet and then a glance around the room. "but... ." He shakes his head, and in thin voice says, "you need super cooled superconductors."

Elsa smiles.

"Child's play for you." Liam interrupts.

Elsa nods. "I've been working on non-magic, duplicatable super cooling systems for decades. They are reasonably cheap and easy on the ecology. The patents were to be asked for the day after the treaty was renewed. When that never happened... I started the countdown on this plan."

"And?" Elsa prompts Richard.

"And... CPUs that can work on a Quantum level," He says in a small voice. He looks at her tablet. "Would you mind... how good is that tablet?"

She looks at it. "It is unique. Currently... One petaflops. A thousand trillion FLOPS a second. Plans are in place to increase it. But given the time that planning for this operation has taken, I've delayed those plans. The metallic hydrogen architecture is pure magic and not duplicatable AND requires my presence... or it becomes violently unstable. Not to mention a totally new language for the quantum CPU's."

She smiles, "Frigga's mainframe, using older proven and duplicatable tech, is rated at 5 Zettaflops. 5 with 21 zeroes after it. The factory to make that tech is loaded on a ship that left Sydney a day ago. With luck, the factory will be up and running in McMurdo in 6 months. Less if I can get Canute down here, as he is my engineer."

Richard is in shock. Liam looks at him. "I'm assuming that is better than..."

Elsa nods. "oh, there is a couple of larger mainframes. But that applies in all respects. The size of her mainframe is a fraction of those larger ones."

Liam, pale faced, asks, "Somebody will try to hijack..."

Elsa nods. "Of course. Which is why the ship has protection. Ragnhild, with help, is there. Not that hijacking the ship will help them. Without the language and the programs that you need..." she shrugs. "but... in 6 months, I will have small mainframes for sale that will be a generation or three beyond anything else."

A sly look appears on her face. "I wish you luck reverse engineering that tech. I've always enjoyed Clarke's third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Or, of course, the reverse."

She smiles and looks into the camera. "Or would you prefer the tech I mentioned in the opening statement." she wiggles her fingers and electricity arcs between them. "Reverse engineering my powers to create energy led to many things. One of which is a duplicatable system that creates energy from quantum level sources."

Her mouth purses, "it's still a bit bulky, not so much the actual generator, as the mainframe, that I just mentioned, has to be built to control the system. That program is a hog and will not run on anything smaller."

"On the other hand, the prototype plant is up and has been operating for the last five years, so it's a proven tech."

"Running?" Liam asks, shocked.

"Yes. It is powering Arendelle and the surrounding area." she shrugs, "once the computer factory is up and running, making them will be easy and relatively cheap."

Liam and Richard look at each. Liam starts to say something.

She sighs. "But...I've seen... I've witnessed the abuse of this world. I tried, ever since I helped with the Antarctica treaty of 1959 so slow that abuse." She glares at the camera. "After almost a hundred years, one gets tired of seeing... seeing her hopes destroyed."

In an icy voice, "I will help the world. On my terms."

"And those terms?" Liam asks.

Elsa looks at him, and a small smile appears, "That is for later. But... Instead of the easy way, I'm going to do it the hard way. With Charity, Mercy, and Love. NOT violence." Her eyes narrow, "I will not be pushed around, though. And I'm tried of hiding." Her eyes close. "tried..."

Her eyes open and with a tight smile and in a voice in which you can hear the next ice age... "Violence is for the weak minded, the short visioned, the unimaginative. I will not be any of those."

"Violence, I assume is the easy way?" Liam asks.

Elsa nods. "if I was... some movie villain. This is the time that I'd...what would I do? ..." An icy city scape appears between her hands and a blizzard covers it. "Freeze Peking, since it was a Chinese company that made this mess. Kill millions for the causal destruction of a very small, and yes, insignificant, part of Antarctica." In a icy voice. "Evil is stupid. I will not be."

A deep breath. "that is all I will say about the subject." She looks at Liam, "any other questions?"

He looks at his laptop and pages through a couple of pages. "Well... that produced a lot of...of questions."

Queen Elsa smiles, serenely.

"Ok." Liam begins, "how are you... making science and magic work together. Everything about magic, as far as I can tell, means it will not work with magic."

Elsa raises her hand and waves side to side. "That is reasonably correct. But. That is because of the habits and attitudes of magic users. Although, the fact the scientists refuse to acknowledge data that contradicts their explanations is part of the problem, as well."

"Hmmm... how to explain. Most of the magic users, especially the oldest and the most powerful, were born before the scientific pattern of thought. Hmmm... An internet legend might help here. Remember when the web was being born and how the older generation, then, could not adjust?"

Liam nods. That is a major part of some of the current comedies and a large plot point in many other stories.

"So...IF you were born in the middle ages, where a windmill is high tech...how well are you going to adjust, to say, an airplane?'

He opens his mouth and closes it, then "not well."

"And if you were old enough to see the Continental Glaciers of the last Ice Age growing... how well do think that... you'd react to simple agriculture, much less the metal bronze?"

Liam and Richard are, metaphysically frozen.

"Oh, there is some adaption, but when things become critical, when you have to depend on something, those magic users will turn to magic, not science."

"I, on the other hand, was still a teenager when the fist steam powered ship entered Arendelle's harbor." She smiles, "It was a big enough event that I was allowed to visit the dock and see it. And got into a huge argument with my father, when I could not have the plans to figure it out. I was 37 when the first telegraph opened in Oslo. I was 38 years old when the first railroad opened in Norway. I was 67 and there when the fist light bulb in Norway was turned on. It was in a factory that I had investments in."

"I was there, in other words, when most of the beginnings of modern tech was started. So... When my powers went wild in 1837, instead of turning to magic. Well. No. There is a better way to say that. Instead of ONLY turning to magic, I also turned to science." She grimaces, "I must admit that magic was much more helpful in those early years. It wasn't until after Anna's death that science really began to help me. But... as science improved, it has helped me more and more."

"Computers." Joan begins, "once those became available... that really helped."

Elsa nods. "Well... once Frigga found a way to mystically..." her face twists, as she is trying to find the right word, "connect to computers... that opened up everything."

"I think that answers your question, Liam?"

"Do you know how many questions that last statement generated in MY mind?" Richard interrupts.

Elsa turns to him, "No. I can make a guess, though. Many, many, many... or do I need more many's?" she says with a smile.

Everyone laughs.

"Seriously, though, I think it is time to continue the story of my life, so." She nods to Liam.

He grimaces, shakes his head, sighs and says, "That's really, really, really pushing it, but." He nods.

She smiles. "Thank you."

"It took months to recover from the depths of my depression." She says as she grabs Joan and Herman's hands. "Still... finding something to grab and occupy myself was easy. I was already part of the Red Cross... so I began to increase my involvement in the pre-WWI peace movements."

She grimaces, "it wasn't planned to happen for years more, but, I told my nephew, the new King of Arendelle and some friends in Oslo to create a new identity for me. Once the paperwork was done...I put the plan in action."

"After some letters being sent telling my friends and investors, about my new secretary, I started to do less and less, as Elsa Queen of Arendelle." She raises her hands and quotes around, 'secretary' each time she says it. "My secretary did more and more of my work, with Queen Elsa, due to her depression and bad health, doing less and less."

A sly smile on her face as she says, "I was placing a lot of trust in my new secretary as she born in 1860, so she was only twenty at the time."

A deep breath and speaking in a rush, "on July 18, 1880 Elsa, Queen of Arendelle died in a fire, totally destroying her chateau. Officially," She nods to Liam laptop, "it was an accident that everyone knew was a suicide."

"My secretary, with her brand new degree in math from Cambridge, was named as one of my heirs. Officially she was not give all that much. But...my family knew to give her total control of it, and she keep control of Queen Elsa's secret accounts. Over the years, more and more of my official estate was given to her as planned."

Liam clears his throat. "Queen Elsa, I'm noticing that you are not giving us a name."

Elsa's eyebrows raise, a smile appears on her lips. "Oh, I haven't? I knew I was forgetting something." A very playful voice...

Liam and Richard look disgusted. Joan and Herman smile.

"My new name? Well..." She stops, rubs her face and grips her locket. "Well. As planned by Anna and myself... My new identity became..."

Joan and Herman grip her shoulders in support.

Elsa takes a deep breath. Her hair begins to move, the ice woven in it changes the style... into Elsa's tight hairstyle she wore when she a teenager. Her ice dress changes... looking like a deep blue tea-gown from the 1880's. Just the change in hairstyles and dress styles does make changes in her look. She looks like... maybe her daughter or...

"My niece Elsa Anna Bjorgman. The second daughter of Anna Maude Astrid Bjorgman, my sister."

thank you for reading.

Jeff Shelton

BUT... Just to give you a feel for what is happening elsewhere in the world... The power levels are about the same as Elsa during Frozen, btw.

Xolani Jonathan, 6 ft 4 inc, 240 lbs, and from Lesotho, Africa, stands at the rear of the rec room of the freighter Fractal Odin, watching the TV and the crew, except for the watch officers at the bridge and engine room, as they watch Elsa's interview. He is a new member of the crew, just signed on when the company ordered the ship to leave port, NOW, but the captain did check his history. He is 36, has been with Fractal for fifteen years and comes with high recommendations. The captain called a couple of his former captains and confirmed the data. The only data that caused the captain any concern was his habit of being a loner when off duty, and the slight medical phobia that causes him to wear groves all the time. Unfortunately, his mother, for whom he is the sole support, is chronically sick and in and out of various hospitals, so he jumps from ship to shore jobs, depending her condition, he just spent five years onshore, because of it.

As the emotional climax of the interview begins, Xolani turns and touches his state of the art blue tooth and whispers into it...

When Elsa starts to tell her story of her life as Elsa Anna Bjorgman and her 35 year quest for peace, he leaves the room.

A glance at the sky, a sniff, and he thinks, 'a storm is coming... good. I like storms.'

As he is walking to his quarters his face blurs and changes. He starts to shrink, in height, width, and weight. The black skin changes into black ink, maybe, covered snow. His chest area changes and grows breasts. White snow replaces black snow. The black snow is cycled deep inside her chest, where her lungs would be, if she was human. Other colored globs of snow are already there, between them, they can duplicate, well enough to pass a casual inspection, any skin color she needs. When the transformation is over, she is 6 feet tall and weights 150 lbs. (author note: If you are interested. Her beautiful face is based on a sculpture by Wilhelm Bissen in 1835.)

'I hope Xolani likes his vacation and extra paycheck. I wonder where he went.' She thinks. 'But, it is good to have a real person to base this identity on.'

She takes the black crystal from her forehead, squeezes it, places it in a pocket and thinks, 'Frigga's assistant Christina's adaption of Pabbie's light spell into a face hologram was a great idea.'

She takes off the human black hair wig, placing it in a pocket and shakes out her snowy hair. It grows longer and redder as she shakes. Her butt-length hair twists itself into Anna's twin brain hairstyle. She begins to unbutton her clothes.

She enters Xolani's quarters, kicks off the loose shoes, and undresses, quickly. She opens the closest and removes several various shaped bags. She opens the dress bag, first. "There will be bullets today. So... should I wear the military utilities, since I can replace them easily? But... I really want to introduce myself in my costume." She mumbles to herself, as she looks at the bejeweled deer skin Norse looking outfit. She smiles, "It will be hours before anyone can get here. I can introduce myself properly and then change."

After putting on her clothes, she opens the jewelry box. She removes her black glass eyes and chooses the high grade Emerald's from the selection. The heavy gold and jeweled necklace comes next, in addition to the three pink Troll crystals hanging from it, there are four large Emeralds. The leather bracer for her left forearm is next. It is very elaborately engraved with winter scenes, separating the scenes are large jewels: A green diamond, a bright blood red ruby, a deep blue star sapphire and a fire opal.

To her senses the jewels, all of them, crackle with magic...

She carefully places a small box on the bed and slowly opens it. In it are six snow-globes.

Elsa's snow-globes... Any one of which radiates more magic than all her jewels combined.

She places, carefully, the globe with a Pegasus in it in a smaller padded carrying case. 'Eir... IT is time to play.' she thinks.

She pulls out a long 7 foot thin case, it is marked with custom tags cautioning against opening. After opening it, she pulls out a 6 foot long spear. 5 feet from an Ash tree with a 1 foot obsidian blade. The wood and glass are melded together... somehow.

She thinks, 'Ash from the grove where the gods created Man, supposedly. Strengthened and Enchanted by Lif. That was an adventure, tracking her down and begging for the spell. Then, further strengthen by spells that I helped adapt, and powered by Elsa. There might be a stronger metal staff in the world, but not by much. Obsidian from Muspelheim. I begged Pabbie for a spell that would strength it, but he said no. Obsidian isn't a stone, it is glass, so no. But Bulda did give me the spell. Cast on it by myself and Elsa. Sharpened to a nanometer edge. It's not unbreakable. But... there is very little man-made that can make that attempt.' A grin, 'and unlike the ice weapons of the rest of the family, I can walk through customs and security with it. Well... after the security folks freak out and raise eyebrows over it... that is...'

She flexes her icy muscles, 'And unlike my younger sisters and brothers, my strength isn't limited. I can slice a tank into pieces with it. As I did in that scuffle a couple of years ago.'

She smiles, looks in the mirror, nods and says. "I'm ready!" happily...

The door to rec room opens and the sound of a staff hitting, and denting, the floor draws everyone's attention.

"I am Ragnhild of Antarctica." She smiles. "Queen Elsa has given me command." She nods to the captain. "You, Dagfinn, will remain in command of the ship. I will command the security team, though, Edan." she nods to the head of the ships security team.

She announces, "According to Frigga, after observing various security cameras and hacks on some communications, there is a tilt-rotor plane, a helicopter, and a freighter with another helicopter that have been given orders to hijack us. Three separate attempts, as they all represent different... organizations. The tilt-rotor and helo are on one-way trips and will arrive soonish. The freighter will take a couple of days to get in range for its helicopter."

"I will stop them." She nods to Edan. "but you will have to hold the prisoners, after I capture them."

"Ahhh..." the Captain Dagfinn starts to say something, but then his phone rings.

"Answer it," Ragnhild says smiling, "that is the CEO of Fractal explaining the situation. And confirming my command authority."

Dagfinn, after listening for a couple of minutes, and saying "YES, SIR!" several times, hangs up. He is pale and wiping his brow when he hangs up.

"Any questions?"

Icy dead silence...

Later

A light rain is falling...

Ragnhild, in military utilities, she has also removed the necklace and changed her eyes to bright green glass eyes, is walking the length of the ship. Every 25 feet a pair of 20 foot tall ice spike grows on left and right side of the ship. Edan and most of the crew are following her cautiously, the Captain is on the bridge trying to contact the approaching helos. "Those will prevent the helos from landing. The mercs can still slide down, of course. But I will stop that." she explains.

At the helipad at the end of the ship, she gestures and the helo the ship carries is in cased in a dome of ice. "That will protect it." Three 20 feet ice spikes appear on the rest of the pad.

She points to a point just off the pad and an ice house grows. She looks at Edan. "store the prisoners there, for now. Once I've gotten more information, we'll see."

"This is the Captain of the ship Fractal Odin calling unknown helicopters. Please reply." sounds from the ships speakers.

She stands on the pad and looking off into the distance, a touch to her blue tooth and... "Stop Captain. Put me on."

"Go."

In a harsh commanding voice. "Tilt-Rotor V-280, this is Ragnhild of Antarctica. You have three choices. You can be smart and surrender, now. You can run out of fuel, crash into the ocean and hope, that this ship turns around in time to save your asses, before you die from hypothermia. Or, you can be stupid and I will defend myself. You have no chance at defeating me." a pause. "You have three minutes, then your choices do not include surrender."

Nothing.

She carefully takes out Elsa's snow-globe. Inside it: a one inch tall Pegasus is rearing up as the snow gently falls on and around it. She opens the globe, the snow continues to fall. She whispers, "Awaken Eir. It is time to play."

The Pegasus snorts and flaps her, she is a mare Pegasus, wings with snow swirling around her rising, like a butterfly, into the air. With each flap she grows in size... After ten seconds a full sized Pegasus lands next to Ragnhild.

Ragnhild grabs Eir's checks and rubs her face against the side of Eir's face. "It is good to be released, is it not?"

Eir neighs, nods her head and stumps her feet in delight.

Ragnhild mounts Eir and looks at Edan. His mouth is hanging open in shock, the same as the rest of the crew. She smiles and raises her spear. "Away, Eir!" She is laughing.

Eir flaps her wings and flies into the sky. Even Edan can tell that, while the wings help, the Pegasus is flying by magic, not wing-power.

A few minutes later.

Ragnhild can see the helicopter clearly in distance. She takes a deep breath and concentrates deep inside her soul. She finds the computer chip timer where her heart would be. She actives Frigga's spell on it.

Humans have a sense of time and under certain conditions, that sense can stretch or shrink the perception of time. Hours can seem like minutes, or seconds can seem like minutes, depending on the circumstance.

Frigga's spell allows one of Elsa's children to adjust their sense of time. The computer chip regulates it, something that her children could not do on their own. They call it 'Freezing time.' They can not move their bodies any faster, it just gives them more time to think, plan and react or act.

Ragnhild adjusts her sense of time. For her one second of time, will feel like ten seconds. 'That will give me time to think. Air to air intercepts are not someplace where I want to make a mistake.' she thinks.

The pilot of the V-280 sees her and shifts the plane, allowing the mercs in the open side doors to see her.

She smiles.

A couple of mercs, hanging from safety straps, start to fire their assault rifles at her. Bullets, not many, hit her.

Well... Try to hit her.

She is Elsa's oldest daughter and her protections are matched only by the ones that cover Asa, Frigga and Eric. And, of course, Elsa...

They do penetrate her clothes before...They fall frozen into the ocean.

Some of the bullets do, however, hit Eir. And she, unfortunately is only covered by a much more limited spell. She neighs in pain as the hot bullets and hotter tracers pass through her.

Ragnhild reaches down and pats Eir neck with her left hand, her blue star sapphire glows and cold...healing cold engulfs Eir.

'Thank you.' She thinks as she looks at the mercs. 'Queen Elsa's order were quite specific. They are to attack first, no matter what. Well... Bullets count as an attack. So...'

A merc with a rocket launcher leans out. Ragnhild's eye narrow as she recognizes the Russian HEAT warhead designed to take out main battle tanks.

The rocket fires.

Ragnhild flicks her hand and a wave of cold hits it.

The frozen rocket falls into the ocean, harmlessly.

Eir flies toward, like she is attacking, the tilt-rotor. Ragnhild shifts her sense of time to... one second of time is 100 seconds to her. 'this has to done perfectly.'

As Eir flies next to V-280 Ragnhild points her spear at it. A surge of cold hits the middle, where the mercs are at.

A cylinder of ice forms around the mid-section of the V-280, sealing the exits.

This is so, the falling unconscious mercs, do not fall out.

At the proper moment in time, as Eir is closest to the helo, Ragnhild jumps from Eir into the V-280, after coating her clothes and her spear in ice. That is so... They can flow through the still sealing ice cylinder like Ragnhild does.

She lands in the V-280 and looks around. 'Good. They are all unconscious from hypothermic shock.' She, to her, very slowly reaches down and touches the rocket launcher, freezing it to near absolute zero, then touches it again, shattering it.

A flicker and Frigga's spell is released. Time, to Ragnhild, returns to normal. A full body shake of her body, 'that is a very draining stunt,' she berates herself.

The co-pilot opens the connecting door, crying out, "What the fuck just happen!"

Ragnhild's spear tip is in his face. "Hello!"

He stumbles back into the cockpit. "Help!" A smell of urine fills the cabin.

The Pilots looks back his mouth wide open. "HOW!"

"You will follow orders, correct?" she smiles as she points the spear at the pilot.

He can not speak as he is shocked and stunned...

"I know that you have more hours on this bird than I do. But... I learned to fly during World War I. I'm sure that I can figure things out." Her smiles grows. "Also, this might help you decide. I just lowered the body temperature of your passengers to 70 degrees. If they don't get medical help, soon, they will die of hypothermia. Of course," she glances at both of them, "Adding you two to the medical wait list, would not be problem." Glaring white smile off her icy teeth...

"YES! YES! YES!" the copilot cries out, tears dripping down his check and the stink of feces growing around him.

A sneer, "I would not trust you to clean yourself, much less land this." A tap on his skull with the blunt end of her spear and he is unconscious from the force of the tap.

The pilot nods, he is white with fear.

"Good. I thought you were smart." Ragnhild says as she throws the copilot with the rest of the mercs. A glare at his seat. It freezes, she taps it and brushes off the mess. She sits in the seat and starts to familiarize herself with the controls.

A glance at the pilot, "It's OK, we've got about twenty minutes before anything irreversible happens. They are all young, strong and healthy. They will not like me when they wake up, but they should recover fully." A smile. "So, while I familiarize myself, you can calm down."

'As Queen Elsa ordered, NO DEATHS. NO matter what.' Ragnhild thinks as they approach the ship.

Later after landing the tilt-rotor...

As the unconscious mercs are unloaded onto stretchers, Ragnhild says, "get them to sick bay. Strip them, who knows what they might have hidden on them." As each one passes her, she touches their chest as she raises their core temperatures back to normal. The Fire Opal glows each time.

"What about the other?" Edan asks.

Ragnhild looks up, adjusting her vision to the frequency of the ships radar. She can see the beam... and the reflection off the other helo. "We've got time. Not much, but enough."

She changes her sight back to normal and looks at the growing storm above the ship. Lightning arcs and thunder booms.

A look around, "get back, at least 30 feet." she orders in tone that would cause the frozen dead to move.

She points her spear at the clouds. A column of ice, snow and howling winds form around her. It lifts and merges with the storm.

Ragnhild begins to chant, then sing. A song from Asgard, learned during a trip there... about Valkyries.

The storm grows with each note...

A thunder-snowstorm is being born. Lightning fills the sky. The crew covers their ears to protect them from the booms. A wall cloud forms and a funnel cloud reaches toward the ship.

Ragnhild jumps unto Eir. 'let's see how good that pilot is. White out blizzard conditions and a mesocyclone combined. He should surrender.' she thinks.

"Fly, Eir!" she cries at Eir flaps her wings. She is headed into the heart of the funnel cloud.

She looks down at Edan, cowering on the deck, smiles and cries, "IT IS TIME TO PLAY!"

Feedback about what you, the reader would like to see next, would be welcome.

thank you for reading

Jeff Shelton


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

To the readers: I have a question for you.

I've written a 2 chapter interlude about Arendelle and how it...is doing. I want to post them next. However, I have also written the story for Elsa's next life as Elsa Anna Bjorgman.

So..the question.

Which would you prefer? A 2 chapter look at Arendelle or Elsa Anna Bjorman's life.

Given my personal preference, I will post the Arendelle chapters, unless there is more requests for Elsa.

Thank you ptahaegyptus2 for the Beta on this chapter

Thank you for any response.

* * *

I've had a couple of reviewers mention how over powered Elsa's Icemen are. So. A short combat scene. Herman's powers and abilities during this are, basically, similar to what he has in 2050. Oh, some things are better but, they would have only limited influence on this scene.

NOTE: "Queen's and King's Pawn" reference: When Elsa created her platoon, she used a chess motif as a guide. SO...all of them were original named after the piece that they were patterned from. Herman and Vixen were created as White Queen Pawn and White King Pawn, respectively. Over the years, they all have changed their names to other... more personal names. (Plus lots of other id's over the years, just to confuse things even more.)

* * *

August 26, 2022 Arendelle

The tavern named the Ice House.

Built in 1820 as THE bar for the growing Ice Harvesting business. Now. It is the unofficial bar for Elsa's Icemen when they are in Arendelle.

Herman enters the bar. He has on just a hint of a disguise: a wash of brown on his snow. He is wearing a loose causal shirt and jeans. Under them, you can see the specialized cool suit that he is wearing as underwear. The cool suit will keep most of his body cool, only exposing his head, hands and feet to outside temperatures. He is wearing a large belly pack to control it.

He looks over the people in the bar. A few older teenagers visiting the bar on a dare, who he ignores. He nods to descendants of the original Ice Harvester families that also use the bar. Donner, one of Canute's team is in one corner, his laptop is up and he is busy with it. 'Playing games, no doubt.' Herman thinks.

He nods to Vixen, another one of Canute's team, and the person he is here to meet. She waves back and points to the empty chair next to her, he smiles and nods to her. He goes to the bar, orders a vodka, turns around and salutes the front wall.

Tradition. The front wall has a lovingly maintained patch on it. The results of one of Kristoff's epic brawls in the place. A fight for dominance.

The Ice Harvesters fought for dominance among themselves, just like the reindeer they worked with.

Herman sits down. He and Vixen clink glasses. "Absent Friends." Tradition.

Another clink, "Queen's and King's Pawns" Tradition.

"Still drinking vodka, I see." Vixen smiles. She is an elegant looking ice-woman, with short blond colored hair, and like Herman a thin brown wash on her snow. She is wearing loose clothes as well, under which is her cool suit.

He replies, calmly, "You know, I learned to love it helping Queen Elsa sort the chaos north of St Petersburg during the winter war between the British/Americans and Russians in 1918."

He looks down at the table. On it is a hand-sized piece of shark skin. "New?" He asks, pointing to it with his drink.

She nods, placing her hand on the skin and stretching it covering the patch. The snow of her hand begins to ripple. She hums in pleasure.

"Still like the feeling of that texture, I see." Herman says.

She nods. "Yes. It just feels..." She smiles. "Great white. Caught it myself."

She sips clear water, forming ice in her mouth. Then, "Heard that you were almost captured?"

He nods. "Yeah. Just got out of Eric's clutches as he replaced the missing magical ice." Herman grimaces. "Same old, same old. Get blown up and while you trying to put yourself back together again, your pieces get thrown into different sacks... frustrating."

"Well? Tell me."

He takes a breath. "About a month ago, a couple of teenagers with rich parents." A nod to one of the teens in the bar. "were vacationing in San Diego and decided to explore the 'wild side' south of the border. One of the local gang lords decided to make a little money with a ransom."

Vixen nods.

"Well... Their parents know Njord and he called Joan. She sent me and Otto to fix things."

He shrugs. "Simple mission. Fly into Tijuana with clean paperwork, looking prosperous, making sure you don't touch people, and with the cool suit in the luggage being the only really weird thing. The gate guards forget you in the crowd of people they see everyday."

Vixen nods. "SOP."

He nods. "Stop at various ATM's... cash a few of Njord's cashiers checks. Use the money to get transport, weapons and any extra disguises. TJ was easy, no one there is going to ask questions about guns with cash in hand. Even the rocket-propelled grenades were not a problem." A grimace. "We did have to pay a second trip to one arms dealer. To teach him about selling unsafe weapons."

"Left him alive?"

He nods. "Shoved the pistol up his ass and called for an ambulance. Told him... clean the weapon, himself. Or next time."

A smile and he continues. "Sighted in the guns in the hills of Baja. Then off to the gang lord's ranch."

* * *

A memory...

A couple of big bikers riding battered and scarred hogs. Their leather jackets have patches from the roughest biker gangs in the area. The large beards and scars on their faces mean that these two are hard, violent men. Even though the bags strapped to the motorcycles mean that they are carrying weapons, no one stops them as the ride into hot, rocky hills.

* * *

Herman continues with his story, "Nothing special about his ranch. Barbed wire around a big house, a garage, and a couple of other smaller houses. A couple of modified SUV's with machine guns on the roof. No mines. Hell, not even a roving patrol in the hills around the house. The only iffy thing was a snipers nest on the roof."

"Gang lord sniper? A kid that thinks he's big time." Vixen states as an expert witness.

"Our thought as well." He grimaces. "We were wrong, though. Anyway. The plan was simple. I'd approach the front of the house and fake an attack. Make noise, draw attention."

"And Otto would go in the back and rescue the teenagers." More expert knowledge.

Herman nods. "Worked like a charm. A RPG round at one of the SUV's. Another at the garage. A deliberate miss at the big house. Burn a few magazines through the AK variant that I was using."

Vixen remarks, waving her glass causally, as someone who has seen everything, "They were running around like a chicken with its head cut off? Or was it like a drunken and stoned chicken?"

"Drunken and stoned." He sighs. "Otto signaled that he had the teens and that he was on his way out." He grimaces. "And I made a mistake. Just took too long to duck. And the kid put a round through my head."

"Ouch."

A shared look between them explains why Herman was not using the computer chip in his body to control his perception of time. Queen Elsa almost lost her life to mistake with the magic in 2018. Even though Elsa and Frigga say that they work safely, it will take years before her children trust them.

"And then I did something really stupid. I stood up. And the kid put a round through my chest. AND it hit the grenades on my back."

* * *

A memory...

Herman thinks, 'Oh, fuck!' as his head is hit by a bullet. Instinctively he stands up to pick up the pieces. The second bullet hits him and the grenade explodes. The explosion destroys the suit, scattering small pieces of him around the hill-top.

His body starts working on instinct. Picking itself up. His soul...thinks...remembers.

During their battles, Elsa's Icemen have learned about their mortality. Being blown into pieces is not a fatal event. It's too bad that Elsa isn't here to levitate the pieces of ice back together again. He will have to pick them up himself.

The problem is that spreading out of the pieces of the body. IF it is too far... Intelligence and coordination drop the further spread out the pieces are. The pieces automatically and instinctively put themselves back together. That is the overriding impulse. So, the pieces ignore what caused the explosion. And the pieces aren't all that bright and are easily tricked into bags and such.

To bad that he just pissed off a gang of men. Who will come looking for him.

The potentially fatal problem is the heat. A full-scale attack wasn't planned. So. Herman and Otto packed lite. And that lack of preparation might kill him. This is Baja in August. Very hot, especially by icemen standards. He can melt to death here.

Elsa's basic heat protection spell alters the melting point of his magical ice, raising the melting point from 32 degrees to 85. More than good enough for most locations. Not here, unfortunately. Sadly... She is working on increasing the power of the spell, and while that might happen in a couple of years, he needs it now.

Joan, his Queen, knew she was sending him into a hot area, so she added in her personal heat protection spell. It absorbs a certain amount of heat, then vanishes. How much heat it can absorb: Depends on the temperature, the amount of time and most important, the surface area it must protect. With the cool suit, in Baja in August, the spell is good for about 36 hours.

The amount of surface area that the spell must protect has increased many, many times. The spell will last minutes now... not hours.

* * *

Vixen grimaces and pats his hand. "How far?"

"All over the place. Rocky hill too. So... I got into all sorts of cracks. Racing against time before small pieces started to melt, I put myself together only a third of the way by the time they got up the hill."

Vixen shakes her head in sympathy. She grins, "I am almost going to say, 'watch out for my butt.' But, I will refrain."

He glares at her, but continues, "One of them was smarter than normal, too. He threw a grenade at me, scattering me again."

"Double Ouch."

"They had a couple of used body bags in the SUV. So...they started shoving me in them."

* * *

More memories...

When Elsa creates an iceman, she joins the seed of the Iceman's soul with magically created ice. The soul grips the ice, like in Egyptian magic, with a multitude of magical hooks. If enough of the hooks vanish the soul loses its grip on reality: The ice body disintegrates and death happens.

Elsa's icemen can survive a partial melting. BUT melting destroys the grip of the soul. Even at 50% melted they can operate, basically, as normal. Between 50% and 75% function decreases. Intelligence, coordination, planning go first, but it varies from iceman to iceman. Between 75% and 90%. All you have then is a lump of ice/snow that the iceman's soul is gripping with all its will. It quivers...and slowly moves away from heat... but that is about it. Above 90% death will occur. There is some argument among Elsa's Icemen about the percentages. The deaths that those percentages are from are deaths that happened before 1950. In the years since then, they have increased their knowledge and power. So...the percentages, especially the ones close to death, are fuzzy.

He has an Elsa's snow-globe. It is an older one and weak compared to her current snow-globes. When broken, it creates a magic field that lowers the temperature around it to 30 degrees for 30 minutes. One of her early attempts at giving her icemen some additional protection from heat.

But his body must put itself together, before he can find and break it. Since, like all her snow-globes, it is in a very well padded box and did not break with the explosion.

* * *

"How did you?" she asks.

"Oh... Otto did not receive my signal that I was retreating, so he knew I was in some sort of trouble. So, he put the kids behind a rock, told them to stay and rescued me."

"Hit them from the rear as they were congratulating themselves." Vixen says, nodding.

Otto finds and breaks the snow-globe that he knows Herman has, saving his life.

A nod from Herman. "Then... SOP for a successful attack on us. We attacked the house, destroying it."

"How many were killed?" Vixen asked quietly.

"A few. We only made sure about the gang lord. We were shooting to wound. However, given all the bullets flying...Some were hit by chance, being unlucky. Their stories are going to sound sooo outrageous that they will be dismissed as stories from drunken, drugged idiots. Which most of them were."

He sipped his drink and continued, "I had an ice chest and spare clothes on the cycle. Used the ice as a temporary replacement. Got the kids and drove away, through some rough country, before anyone got curious. Found a beach that had a bunch of people on it, even some private security goons and dropped them off. And drove away... Just a couple of hard-ass bikers getting the reward offered by their parents is all they know. We had to use Otto's snow-globe and stop for more ice several times."

* * *

More hard-won knowledge...

Icemen's bodies are magically created Ice. Normal ice can be used to temporarily replace magical ice. But after a few hours, a day at most. The iceman's soul rejects the ice. It falls off and melts.

Elsa has created magical items for her icemen that can create magical ice. Iceman call them Elsa's Snowflake. (Snowflakes, now in 2050, have additional powers) The ice it creates works. But, feels odd, partially functional. Even magical ice created naturally by Ragnhild, Asa, and Frigga feels...itchy. Only ice created by Eric and Elsa feel right.

Luckily their souls expand to attach with the new magic ice, quickly. So, as long as there is life they are healed rapidly.

* * *

He laughs. "I found a walk-in freezer, threw some cash at the owner and stayed there until the replacement cool suit arrived. I was about 40% melted, when all was said and done."

She grimaces. "Tough. And non-magical ice works for a little while, but it will melt."

He nods. "IF Joan had been there, I would have done something else, but..."

"Yes, the powers of a Queen or King." Vixen sighs.

Vixen thinks about a scene a few years ago between Alexander, the Black King and Queen Elsa. He wanted to know why, given all her powers, are his powers so limited. Surely she could increase them.

Queen Elsa replied, "Yes. I can. But...if something...horribly wrong should happen... I want Mankind to be able to destroy you."

Vixen shivered at the memory, then asked "The sniper?"

Herman smiles, "He only spent a couple of days in a hospital. We took blood samples and such. If he decides to continue playing with guns, and nothing really horrible pops up in the background check, we will need to point him out to the right people."

Vixen nods. "If he is that good of a shot, especially in that type of chaos, he needs to be working for us."

Herman stretched, nodding and relaxing, "Now...I need to celebrate a close call." His eyebrow raises.

Vixen smiles. "And I need a break from helping Asa dig the new tunnels and vaults."

They leave the bar

Together.

Any comments are welcome.

Thank you for reading

jeff shelton

* * *

Just to make it clear.

In the story Elsa is putting on a show. She is giving true information, but she is also, trying hard to entertain as well. She is putting on as positive spin on everything that she can.

Around her... any of her icemen are at their best. Away from her... they are a lot less.

As she mentions in a future chapter, she is trying to talk softly. However she also has to show the big stick. This causes her story to be uneven as she switches from one to the other.

And about the science terms Elsa is sprinkling in her explanations...

She is trying to convince people to not be afraid of her.

At the same time, she's trying not to go nerd on them and make their eyes glaze over.

* * *

A BLUNT and reasonably true explanation:

The basic theory behind magic. I, using my WILL controls/alters reality. In ways that are AGAINST the laws of nature.

So..for Elsa and her power: to a degree REALITY around her... IS what she wants. And that is frightening.

So.. she is using tech terminology to soften that explanation. To make it more...understandable. IF you understand something...you are less likely to fear it. IF something is NOT understandable you are more likely to fear it.

And since she is using tech terminology...it will NOT make sense. Since what she is describing...something that science can NOT explain.

Clarke's dictum: Any sufficiently advanced technology will be viewed as magic by less technologically advanced society.

* * *

She is, also, deliberately NOT mentioning many magical encounters. Meeting with Lif in 1842 (150,000 year old mitochondrial Eve...the mother of humanity, seen in the prologue.) Meetings with a classic monster in 1886, 1913. The meetings with Merlin in 1883 and 1924. Her magical exploration of the multiverse. Which has already cost her one of her icemen... the most powerful one ever lost. (as an Inu-yasha fan, there will be references to shippo and sess in future chapters.) Etc...

And yes, I do have an opponent for her. IF she's lucky she'll be able to shift that war to a different alternate universe. IF not... Earth is really really hard to destroy. That is a good thing. Because it will be damaged.

* * *

Since readers have asked about what can challenge her. Some previews.

NOTE: I am deliberately trying to use many short sentences.

A scene from her opponents world

Another Earth. An alternate world were Evil won.

Art covers the low square buildings.

Art of Beasts attacking and eating Humans. Humans vs Humans at war. The physical damage to bodies is rendered in loving colored detail.

Art of sex. Of all sorts of sex between Humans, Humans and Beasts, Beasts and Beasts. The details of the joining is superb. So are the details of the pain and blood that the whips and other torture devices are causing.

* * *

Another scene of a world where Evil won.

A marketplace, perhaps?

Food is available by various vendors. Selection is limited. Corn and wheat. A small choice of meat. Other things...

People, humans, mainly, lined up for food. Clothes are limited. A multicolored robe, a loincloth and sandals, basically. But, many of them have some sort of beast-like feature. Short fur, mainly black covering them, Short claws and fangs. Weird colored eyes, hair, even skin color. The end results of matings between humans and Beasts. All of them have tattoos in obviously visible places.

A flying carpet, with a cab on it glides by. It stops. A couple of more Beast-like, cat-like humanoids wearing cloaks made out of hummingbird feathers, step out of the cab. They approach and search the line of people, paying attention to the tattoos. The marks of ownership.

They look at only the women. Most of them are pregnant. That is by choice pregnancy protects them, tender young babies are a valuable resource. And it is the best way to improve their life. Mating with and having children with Beasts are good things.

The pregnant and non-pregnant women willingly exposed themselves at the Beast-men. They want to be chosen. They chose the youngest females. They come willingly along and Beasts mate with the females by the cab. The people in the line cheer them on.

One of the women must have done something wrong. The Beast-man kills her.

They do that because.

Everyone is a slave. The only free person is the GOD-Emperor. Everything belongs to him. Below him are layers of slave-masters, each layer having total power over any lower layer. Life and Death is at the whim of your master... and his master...and so on.

The food arrives. The line moves orderly as people pick up the meat. They are happy. They have earned a meal of the special meat. The meat, is ground up, but this is THE preferred meal. The foodstuff that their masters enjoy. So.. they will enjoy it, as well. The label on it

HUMAN.

A world where dining on people is what you want to do.

thank you for reading

jeff shelton


	7. Chapter 6 Elsa Anna Bjorgman chapter 1

Chapter 6

This life was 2 chapters. but this 1st chapter came in at over 10,000 words. so, break this into 2 chapters. Now a total of 3 chapters for this life. sigh. And when I finish editing that 3rd chapter, I'll probably split it, as well. sigh.

There is LOT of name dropping in this stage of her life.

This lifetime...she was at her most powerful within human society and politics.

Thank you to ptahaegyptus2 for your support and Beta.

* * *

First a repeat of the last few paragraphs of chap 4, as a reminder.

Liam clears his throat. "Queen Elsa, I'm noticing that you are not giving us a name."

Elsa's eyebrows raise, a smile appears on her lips. "Oh, I haven't? I knew I was forgetting something."

Liam and Richard look disgusted. Joan and Herman smile.

"My new name? Well..." She stops, rubs her face and grips her locket. "Well. As planned by Anna and myself... My new identity became..."

Joan and Herman grip her shoulders in support.

Elsa takes a deep breath. Her hair begins to move, the ice woven in it changes the style... into Elsa's tight hairstyle she wore when she a teenager. Her ice dress changes... looking like a deep blue tea-gown from the 1880's. Just the change in hairstyles and dress styles does make changes in her look different. She looks like... maybe her daughter or...

"My niece Elsa Anna Bjorgman. The second daughter of Anna Maude Astrid Bjorgman, my sister."

Liam's mouth opens and then closes. His eyes narrow as he opens his mouth.

Elsa interrupts, "How did I get THAT past the royalty watchers? The people who live for gossip about royalty?"

Liam nods and smiles, "Beat me to it, again." He finishes in a rueful tone.

"I've lost count of the number times I've been interviewed and questioned." A small thin smile. A shrug, "You get used to it."

"I think that is about the kindest way I have ever heard you describe it." Joan interrupts. Herman nods.

A glance, "I'm being polite. Especially," She waves her hands at her body. "as Elsa Anna Bjorgman, politeness was my middle name, if not my first name."

A look at Joan, "Joan, They need you outside, now."

"You are sure?"

Elsa nods, her eyes semi-closed, "I'll be fine. Once we get to 1909 and after, I might need you then, but I'm fine now."

Joan hugs Elsa, nods at Herman and leaves the room.

"1909?"

Elsa grimaces, "my...the most horrible mistake of my life. A world-changing one." Her eyes close in pain. "I'll get to it... sooner or later."

"but... how did I explain a 20-year-old daughter that they had never heard of?" A grin. "There was two explanations I used, depending on who I was talking to."

A wry smile, "Most of the suspicious people were old biddies. Gossipy women who would have made perfect spy masters. They heard every rumor." A bigger grin, "At times, I did hire gossipy old women as spy masters. Worked great once I got them to understand that were limits to their gossip."

A laugh from everyone.

"I am paraphrasing, here. I had to repeat this many times in many languages, and the.. the culture of speech has changed as well. "

Liam nods.

Two moving ice sculptures appears in front of Elsa, larger than the others she has created, and in greater detail. One of them is a small version of Elsa, the other an older, heavyset woman in fancy lace covered clothes. They speak and move as Elsa desires, play acting the conversation. When Elsa indicates nods and other gestures, the sculptures are doing them.

Real Elsa "to begin."

A pause.

Ice Elsa, "Ahh.. you never heard of ME?"

A nod.

Sigh. "You do know Anna, the Princess, my mother." Ice Elsa

Nod. "I know of Queen Elsa's sister, and I know that I have never heard of you."

"When I was born, I was premature, seven months only, so...small and sickly. My mother did not think I would live. So, she stopped the birth announcement until she knew whither or not I would live."

"I see..."

"After I survived a few months, I was alive and Queen Elsa ordered the announcement be made." Sigh. "But that meant that my mother would have to approve and sign off on the wording." A pause. "She forgot to sign it."

A purse of lips. "may be."

"You are sure," in a slightly peeved tone. "that you knew my mother? And her famous dislike of paperwork?!"

Strong nod. "I am sorry, you are correct."

A weird look on Liam's face causes Elsa to freeze the sculptures.

"Yes, it seems strange today, but Anna's dislike." A pause, "I know one should not speak ill of the dead, but she was my sister, and for all my love of her... she hated paperwork. The only way to get her to do any was to bribe her with chocolate. And her hatred of paperwork was such that she would, occasionally, refuse even that bribe."

"I would like to say that SHE felt that the only good thing that she used paper for was as toilet paper. But, I saw the first advertisement for, as it was then know as medicated papers was...When I was reading a Washington DC paper. I was trying to keep abreast of the then current Civil War, in December 1861. The first time the palace had any on hand was not until... March 1864. Pitiful stuff, that..."

A smile appears on Elsa face and as she fingers her locket. "The only use she had for paper was Origami." A distance look and a soft voice, "In 1872, the Japanese sent an embassy to Europe, basically to beg, borrow, or steal anything that could be used to modernize Japan. They visited Oslo and I met them there. I invested in them. Not much, really, I was the Queen of Arendelle and one wealthiest women in Norway, if not the wealthiest, but that was a very small pond."

"But it was successful, and Finance Minister Okubo would send gifts to me. One of those early gifts was a book on Origami, given to us when I gave him the money. In Japanese, of course, but it was beautifully illustrated in great detail. She fell, instantly and totally, in love with it. She just had to make everything in it."

A pause and she looks closely at the locket. She gently kisses it. "In here is the last piece she did. The day she died." a very low, soft grieving voice. Another pause. Herman places his hand on her shoulder. "The damaged book, it was in the crash, is in the vaults under Arendelle. There are very few things that I consider more valuable, very few."

Another pause, a shy look at Liam, "sorry, but."

He nods, "I understand."

A deep breath, a release of the locket, "To continue" the sculptures begin to move again.

Ice Elsa "Like my aunt, I also, at an early age, showed promise with math."

Nod. "very well."

Ice Elsa, "So, my aunt, more than my mother, became my teacher. Oh, I had other teachers: Queen Elsa made sure that I had a first class education. But, I was home schooled and did not attend any boarding schools."

Real Elsa interrupts with, "At the time that was how people began to network. Friendships and relationships developed there that would follow you all your lives."

Woman: "so, there would be no schooling references, that you could give me?"

Ice Elsa shakes her head, "No. Afraid not. The Math degree I is due to correspondence, not attendance. And Queen Elsa's famous desire for privacy also kept me out of the limelight."

"hmmm..."

"When my mother died, Queen Elsa was devastated." Tears form.

Firm Nod.

"I was to." A pause. "I started to help her, more to get over my grief, than anything else. But... I quickly became her secretary" sigh, "As I did, I realized, that MY paperwork, was... sadly missing. My mothers doing, that, I'm sure."

Another slow nod.

Ice Elsa, "So, I, of course, corrected that mistake. But, it means the paperwork I gave you is, sadly, a replacement for lost paperwork, not the original."

"Because the original never existed."

A nod.

The sculpture freezes and the heavy-set woman fades any.

Real Elsa, "Some of them would still be suspicious and cable Arendelle for clarification. My Nephew would correct any mistakes and confirm my story, of course. But, there were other people who did not believe me."

A heavy-set man appears next to Ice Elsa.

He pulls a cigar from his vest, snowy smoke appears, and he says, "very nice story. I liked the tears when Anna died. Professional touch, that. Now, tell me the truth."

Ice Elsa. A sigh, a look away, "Well, sir. My grandmother was a maid in the castle. And... well... when she was pregnant with my mother, she and the Queen, ahh.. Queen Elsa's mother dismissed her for unspecified reasons. Queen Elsa's father gave her a lot of money... We are sure that my mother was Queen Elsa's half-sister. Which is why I look like her."

An interested nod.

"Everyone always told me how much I looked like a young Elsa, you know. Ahh.. When Princess Anna died, I, like everyone in the area, visited the castle to pay our respects. And...as I was leaving, one of the guards stopped me and ushered me to meet the Queen."

A lick of her lips, "She... She took an instant liking to me. She had me stay and I became one of her maids. When she moved into the château, she took me with her."

Nod.

Ice Else. "Ahh... once there...ahhh... her grip on reality started to loosen. She started calling me Anna's daughter." She holds up her paperwork. "She even had this made to prove to everyone, that I was Anna's daughter."

A thoughtful nod.

A shake of her head, "After that... she started thinking that she was Anna. When she started calling me her sister Elsa... Ahhh.. things really got weird, then... She thought that I had magic powers and was immune to fire. Ahh... I got out of the château in time, she did not."

A raised eyebrow. "A much more believable story. And how much money did you take?"

Ice Elsa, "That money I earned! Helping her, cleaning up her messes. And since she thought that I was family, she kept refusing to pay me. Kept saying I should do whatever she said out of family love, not money." Stubborn, peeved voice.

The sculptures freeze and both fade away.

Real Elsa. "Here things split up, the smarter of them, mostly men, would try to get me involved in some scam that they were running." A cough in her hand. "normally at a 90-10 split for them."

A laugh from Richard. "bet that did not work."

Elsa shrugs, "I would send the potential mark a letter explaining the con, make notes never to deal with man, and move on." A smile, "The stupider of them, would, causal like, say that he wanted to discuss something in his bedroom. Later, as my power grew... I did ruin some of these men "

"You froze them?" Liam asks.

"Nothing so blatant." Elsa rubs her chin. "I'll have to mention something out of sequence, to explain. After the first time, in which I did freeze the floor and as he was trying to get up, I left the room. One of my maids, Gudrun, then came up with an idea. One of my servants, normally Eric or Kai, jr, would, when I was in a meeting alone with a man or a small group of men would, after about 10 to 15 minutes, enter the room and explain that I had a previous engagement, and that I needed to leave soon."

She nods in agreement as Liam nods. "Depending on the meeting, I would either use that as an excuse to leave, or, explain that I could be late for that other meeting, and stay, continuing the meeting I was in."

"AHH."

Elsa shrugs, "Yes. I believe that answers your basic question."

Liam nods. "Well, mostly. But what about photos?"

Elsa nods, "I was a Queen, I sat for state portraits, and copies of them exist." she touches her tablet and a holo of her last state portrait appears. She does look older in it. Lines around the eyes, a bit drawn in the cheeks, minor things. "But, the good copies were expensive, and hard to find. As far as actual photographs, well, you must remember the tech then. Everything was black and white." another touch. And a photo of her standing on a stage, speaking appears. She is very small in it. "The ones that received any large circulation are about public appearances, and were from a distance."

"Also, as Anna visibly aged, I began to wear make-up..." a grimace, "so... to minimize visible differences in our appearances. Which meant even people who saw me in person, that last decade or so, saw a different version of my appearance."

A smile, "Now, Anna did like photography, and she owned a camera and took many, especially for the time, pictures of us." A touch and a slide show of photos begin to flip through. They are of a picnic with the family. "but, of course, these were private." A look at photos, a catch in her throat. "I have all the originals, but her family does have copies of most of them."

A deep breath, then a touch of the tablet and the holo vanishes.

"To get back to my funeral. As soon, no, much sooner than was proper, I left Arendelle." A shake of her head. "Just too many memories. I wanted to start anew. Try things, do things, that as Queen of Arendelle, I could not do."

A laugh, "I wish I could say that I had a plan. But... not really, I was running away... I did not return until 1886, and that was just to visit with Olaf and Marshmallow. Plus help my nephew out of a mess he made. It was not until the approach of WWI that I started to visit Arendelle regularly . It became a... mental refuge from the stress of Europe." A very pained expression appears on her face.

A pause.

"I left Arendelle with my children Eric, Ragnhild, Asa, and Frigga plus three other servants. Olaf and Marshmallow stayed at the Ice Palace, their appearances were simply too strange to come with me. Kai, jr., the son of my best butler. Gudrun and Johanna, my maids."

A hitch, "I really should take the time and thank them. As Queen, there was a large number of servants, and I never really appreciated their efforts. But, for those three, they were with me for years and I got to know them better. Kai... unfortunately, suffered from homesickness, and other personal problems. So, once I found an excellent replacement, I sent him home. Johanna... She was a farm girl, running away from it when one of Anna's friends brought her to me."

A shake of her head. "Of all of us, she was the one most lost in big cities, especially at first." A smile. "Comforting her, helping her adjust, those first few months... helped to distract me from my problems. Later, she became my social secretary, and as such, controlled access to me. Making her among the most powerful women in the world."

A sigh, "Gudrun, a former prostitute. When her father died, she started working on her back when she was 11. She had wandered the coastline of Norway, starting in Oslo and ending up in Arendelle. She was 22 when I took her in. While she did not have experience in big cities, her time spent in the undersides of various towns, and Oslo, did help."

With a sorrowful tone, she says, "Sadly, she and the man she married where killed during the Champagne Riots in 1911. For a wedding present, I gave her a vineyard near Ay, France... and the rioters..." Shakes her head. "it was an accident, I found that out, when I investigated. But."

"Now, back to me and those first few days in the wide, wide world." A grin. "We also had some luggage, of course. A box of banking paperwork, jewels and gold. Some minor knickknacks. Letters of introduction from Queen Elsa, my nephew, and Oscar II, King of Norway."

"Why so many people?"

Elsa's laughs and claps her hands. "The small size of my entourage was rare! On the other hand, my children had to stay near me. While they were well-known and accepted in Arendelle and the surrounding area, the rest of Europe was a different matter. Oh, we had somewhat perfected various disguises, but... especially those first few months, they stayed close to me. Kai and the others were very normal. And could do things that my children could not."

"Disguises?" Liam asks as looks at Herman.

He looks at Elsa, she shrugs.

"I was not born then, but talking with Eric, it was some pretty heavy cosmetics painted on the surface snow, just about anything that would stop the snow from glistening, and stories about scars from childhood accidents. I understand it had to applied very often, every couple or three hours, I think."

Elsa clarifies with, "By 1880, four hours was about as much as we dared. It depended on the conditions, though, say London in winter. Six or eight hours. Rome in August? An hour at best. Although... in winter, the problem of coal dust smearing the make-up was another challenge."

Liam gives a hard look at Herman. "Given those... qualifiers, you have improved those disguises."

Herman nods. "Due to tactical reasons, I will decline to answer that question." a pause. "I will say that our internal temperature does test those disguises, but that is obvious."

"OK."

"When I got off the ship in Copenhagen, I made a promise to myself to live a normal life, NO magic. Not very logical, really, since I was using it to help my children as I spoke that oath. And, while I love logic, sometimes... a little unlogic is a good thing."

A snort from Richard.

A nod and close up from the camera. "if you are expecting stories of massive magic use, do not. Oh, there are a few times, when I did let it go and used it, but... For most of the next 35 years... I think... most of the times I used my powers was to keep the drinks chilled during my parties."

A pause, "Well, during the winter, I would retreat to a nearby wilderness, and use my powers for a couple of days, a week, it depended on the year. I would let my powers go each winter. But, I made sure that no one saw me."

A nod to Herman, "My children had more adventurous lives. Frigga could finally visit the scientists that she had read about, ask them questions, learn from them. Raghnild caused several problems with her occasional vigilantism, the incident in London in 1888 comes to mind. Asa's most interesting one came in 1885 in the Balkans. Her friend Emily almost...found out that there are things worse than death. Frigga's best story...from her POV would be when in Munich in 1894, she noticed a brilliant fifteen year old mathematician. She helped him. Who he was... ask her." she smiles, mysteriously.

"Asa, small? Ragnhild?" Liam asks.

"Ahh, I forget. You have not meet them. Asa is less than 5 foot tall, and normally wears her hair very long." An ice sculpture of Asa appears. IT morphs into one of Ragnhild. "Ragnhild is 6 foot and my wild child."

"Eric was my bodyguard and stayed close to me. Except when I sent him away on missions. But, even then, most of them were in Europe. Although his adventure in Africa in 1898 did almost cause his death."

"But those are stories for other days, and should be told by them, as I was not there. After a short stay in Copenhagen, as I said, I began to wander Europe, visiting the capitals and other cities that I had read about. It even had a name: 'a Grand Tour of Europe'. It was normal for young men, especially wealthy ones, to do this."

A happy grin appears on her face, "Wandering through Europe was pretty much what you would expect from a 21 year with an unlimited expense account to do. I would stay a couple of weeks, use those letters of Introductions, answer questions and prove my identity. As a Princess, this was required of me." A smile, "It was enjoyable, if somewhat chaotic."

A pause then in slow, careful tone, she says, "I should... explain something. It did not really show up in a major way in my actions. But, it caused me, personally, a lot of private problems. And I made a lot, a lot of small errors meeting... dealing with people, due to this problem."

A breath, "For 40 years, my regular schedule was. Wake up. Breakfast with Anna and her family. When her children were the right age, play with them. Retire to my study, deal with correspondence and read reports. Lunch with selected guests. Public appearances, private meetings in the afternoon. Dinner with Anna and selected guests. The rest of the night, in family quarters with Anna and her family. That roughly describes 80 to 90 percent of my days as Queen."

Liam nods, understanding how stability can help a person.

"Not having that stability... Shook me up. That first week in Copenhagen. The third day, I almost returned, I was sooo... " A shake of her head. "If the King, had not sent me a guide... I have no idea what I would have done. Adjusting from the culture of Arendelle to Europe was a shock. I had read a lot about the rest of Europe and I thought that I knew what I was getting into. But."

A shake of her head, "To give you an example: My love of music meant that I listened to, and helped with, the church choir and town band. And I had music sheets, of the major operas and symphonies, which I read and thought I understood, and the band and choir tried to do them. But the difference between that first professional Opera I attended and what I had known."

Liam asks, "Surely, as Queen, you would have attended something like that. During your travels, maybe?"

More head shakes. "Yes, I did visit Oslo and they did have Operas there, but those trips were few and very much working visits. I just never could justify making time in my schedule for my personal pleasure of music. And, as far as my travels as Queen of Arendelle, except for the trips to Oslo, and visiting a few coastal towns, I very rarely traveled. A habit, a bad habit, of keeping me in isolation...that was just a little looser."

Rueful tone. "Changing my outlook from a citizen of small city in the frozen north, to a citizen of Europe, was a challenge and that first six months, a year... caused a lot of mental confusion, if you will, to me during that time."

Liam remarks dryly, "you adjusted, I assume."

She nods, "it just meant that I was very cautious during this time period."

Liam nods.

She presses on, "and, finally, I developed a plan. In January 1881, I established myself in Geneva. The Treasurer of Red Cross, knew Queen Elsa, and had some idea about my ice powers. He was from Oslo and had family from Arendelle. So, I became one of his many assistants, while attending Conservatoire de musique de Geneve for a degree in Music and the University of Geneva for a PHD in Math."

"Your plan?" Liam asks, "I have no guess, mind you. But, if you were going to become an assistant..."

Another small laugh, "Ahh... Given my title as Princess of Arendelle, that position of assistant was pretty insignificant. It gave me a reason to haunt the headquarters of the Red Cross and was a wonderful way to meet people. Because my plan was simple: do everything I could do to promote peace."

She nods, "Having strong connections with the Red Cross was a start. I planned on using that as a way to help any peace movement."

A glance to Richard and seeing some puzzlement on his face, "The tensions that would lead to WWI were already in place. People, many people, could see it coming and were trying to find anyway to stop or delay that coming war."

"You guessed wrong, Queen Elsa." He smiles. "I just got out of college, and I was wondering how you handled that type of class load."

She grins and smiles, "Teaches me something. Thank you, Richard. I do want to know when I make a mistake."

"No problem." Richard hides a laugh.

"As far as classes go. First the daily life of a student was different then, for a start. Next, the Math side... was just me getting the sheepskin for what I already knew. If they weren't so stuffy about it, I could have walked out with it in a couple of weeks. They spent a couple of years, before they admitted that I knew more than them and they finally give it to me." She purses her lips, still irritated at them.

A thoughtful look appears, "The Music degree was different, as I just said. Being able to listen to music performed as intended... made that degree more of a challenge. On the other hand, I have a beautiful singing voice and my teachers understood my other duties. Still, I surprised them with how quickly I adjusted and learned."

She looks at Richard, "the only times it got difficult was due to scheduling conflicts, especially the times when I was to sing for the school and something else came up."

A laugh. "I had many people tell me that I would make a fortune singing. Just about every Opera master, once they heard my voice, asked me to work with them." A smile. "Which depending on the right charity involved, I did."

He shakes his head in amazement.

"hmmm..." Elsa hums. "I really would like to sing. But that would not be appropriate now. Still."

She hums a few bars from a song Liam does not know, so he asks, "what's that from?"

"Something Richard Strauss and I were working on. But, his wife...felt challenged by me. So, we never really completed it. He finished the score, but, we never could perfect the vocal part." She smiles, "Now, I will be able release it. I could not before due to promises made to him."

Liam swallows hard. "That is a name to drop."

Elsa nods. "I have met a lot of people over the years." She smiles, mysteriously.

A deep breath, a hesitation as she thinks.

"Trying to decide something?" Liam asks.

She nods. "One of the questions that you will ask will be about... if I married during this identity?"

He nods.

"I was just trying to see how I would start that story." A nod. A decision "When I showed up in Geneva, with the title of Princess of Arendelle, I received many invitations to various parties, art exhibits, opera, you name it. Most weekends I either jumped from event to event, or sent my regrets to at least one event."

Liam nods.

"And... I was an instant hit. Which just amplified the problems, I just mentioned." She shudders. "I can not imagine what my reaction would have been if I had not spent forty years at the center of society in Arendelle. Even then, that first month... was almost as bad as my coronation party. Every time I turned around, some bachelor gentlemen would be there, introducing himself, asking me...in modern terms, for a date."

A pause as she is obviously picking her words carefully. "And I did not have the defense of being a Queen, especially a magical Queen. I was just a Princess, and from one of the smallest states in Europe as well. Telling them, that they would have ask my older brother, the King helped me by delaying things... But... Refusing those dates would be a bad idea for my new identity. However... those dates would lead to engagements and marriage, very soon, unless I did something about it."

A frown and a look of mild disgust appears, "Luckily, Gudrun had a plan. Within days, all my maids heard about a son of a German count who was officially attending the University of Geneva, but that was just a story, for he was in exile for... unmentioned problems at home. My maids told me that under no conditions could I be alone with him. He was a serial rapist. But... His father, the Count was a personal friend of the German Kaiser William I. So... he was untouchable."

With a serious look, "In March, during a spring party, I introduced myself to him. After a couple of hours, he, finally, maneuvered us, alone, into a small room. None of the other gentlemen in the room stopped him. Nor did they open the door when I began to scream. Or when objects began to hit the wall."

A pause.

Liam looks like he is about to ask something, when Elsa starts to speak, before he is ready.

A twitch of a smile, "After a few minutes of silence, I opened the door, my dress disheveled and rushed out the room, gentlewomen of Geneva trailing after me like the tail of a comet. Later, I heard that it took the honorable gentlemen of Geneva fifteen minutes to look into the room."

Another pause.

"I do not blame the gentlewomen, the matrons, they were not supposed to fight, to protect people. The gentlemen... though... They knew that they had done wrong, and they tried for years, to apologize. Oh.. I did accept them. Many did very special, unique even, things, trying to get back into my good graces. But they knew.. I would be polite, I would be generous, but..."

A quiet question from Liam. "What did they find in that room?"

A laugh. "An unconscious scum of a man and a wreck of a room. I did not even use my powers."

"You hit him?"

A shocked look, a snort, "What? Do I look like a Warrior Queen?" She waves at herself. "In 1837, just after I lost control over my powers and froze the city, the head of my palace guards, Marcus, tried to teach me to hit people. I failed, totally. Anna, with Kristoff's help and support, became acceptable with a blade, even a pistol. ME? Never. Why do think I created Eric? I know I could not physically attack to defend myself. I still can not throw a punch." A quick sad look, a rub of her jaw... Winds, cold, death tinted, winds sweep the room.

Liam and Richard shiver as Elsa recovers from whatever...she is remembering. Liam looks at Richard. Richard shakes his head, no. Liam grimaces and nods.

Elsa resumes her story, "I used a spell designed to heal the mind, and temporarily turned his off, well... his consciousness. Then I trashed the room, while screaming."

"But.. but.."

"It was a normal magical spell. NOT my natural-born power." She explains.

"That's a very finicky qualifier." he complains. "Stop. Please. I misstated that question. Queen Elsa."

A raised eyebrow. A look that could mean anything.

"I fully understand that you defended yourself and approve of it. It's just... I was just assuming that anytime you used magic, it was your personal powers. I did not realize that you meant there are powers other than the ones you were born with." He explains.

"I have mentioned them before." Elsa states.

He nods. "I just...was thinking too fast."

She nods, accepting that excuse.

"I was trying to ask... no comment, about how lawyerly that statement of yours sounded."

Elsa shrugs, "Over my long life... You do not want to know how many laws and lawyers I have encountered. That has influenced me."

Liam rubs his chin, "Hmm.. heal the mind? Mind Control?"

She answers in a melancholy tone. "Sadly, possible. I mentioned it, early in this interview, when I spoke about it during the incident that ended my childhood. I have never intentionally learned mind control spells, but the spells to heal the mind, require that you to help it change. SO... abusing that knowledge can occur." a sad smile. "And to answer the obvious. I will do things in a few trivial instances."

A point to Herman, "Like telling you to ignore a mistake in his disguise, perhaps. But..."

A purse of lips, "The proverb 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions.' applies here, as does 'the end justifies the means.'"

She explains in a strong forceful tone, "forcing a person to something against his will is, generally, bad, evil. The more you use such spells... the more and more people become like toys to you... things for you to play with. So... Yes, I could use such spells to alter your thoughts."

She nods, "Or more important people in world. The Premier of China, the President of the United States, others. But... should I do such things... the evil means I would be using will change me... into evil. My original goal to help people, make their lives better, will change into me ordering them, to fit MY desires, not theirs. I would end up in Hel, as the Ice Queen that rules drones, not people."

A sad sigh, "I will not do that to others. NEVER."

A quick look at Liam, "We have, however, moved away from my goal. So..."

Liam nods.

Elsa resumes speaking, "I succeeded in the plan. With that incident, all those bachelor gentlemen, would always be on their best behavior around me. AND... would stop instantly, when I would even hint, that I just was not ready to...ahh... have the relationship progress."

Another small laugh, "It actually had a far, far greater effect than planned. All I was after, as well as having an instant way to stop a relationship, was some public embarrassment to the scum, which hopefully would change his behavior, or at least move him away, which would save his life."

She explains, "The story spread throughout Europe in days. It was still mentioned decades later. Even in 1913, as I way trying to help in the Balkans. People in remote villages would know about it. Which meant, even when I was away from Geneva, I could use it to stop men in their tracks. Until, 1890, when the Paris affair happened. It still had an effect then, just smaller. But that I will get to that later."

Liam asks, "what happened to him? And what is his name?"

"Whenever possible, I will refuse to name scum. Sorry." Very blunt tone. "Him... well, a couple of nights later, he had an accident, which broke both his arms. I never asked who did it. Although, just about every bachelor I knew claimed it. His father, due to medical reasons, summoned him home to Germany. In June, I received a letter of apology from the father, NOT the scum, a key and deed to a house in Geneva, and access to an account with a smallish fortune in it."

She grins, "I accepted the apology and the gifts. Although... the person that wrote the apology was not the same person that signed it. I mean... He could not even write an apology. Nor get his son to write one." sigh.

"The house... I used that money to make it into a private hospital for women. Basically for beaten wives and rape survivors, just not named as such. It is still there."

In a thoughtful tone, "In 1897, I was in an event in Berlin. He was there, but stayed on the other side of the room from me. I would have been polite and shook his hand, but he never came close enough. He died during WWI. In the chaos of post-war Germany, a Communist inspired mob trashed and partly burned the family mansion."

She grins, "That basically sets the stage for my actions during the rest of century, so are there any questions before I continue?"

Liam looks down and pages through a couple of pages of stuff. "Everything is about things that you've already explained, or things you will not explain. So, not really."

* * *

NOTE: if you, the reader, have a question, please ask it.

* * *

A scene from elsewhere

This is happening during Elsa's Interview.

Peking

The residence of the CEO of PertroChina.

A ventilation shaft. In order to prevent thieves from using it, the square shaft contains four smaller, separate, tubes, each so small that nobody can get through.

Rolling through one of those tubes is a small train of snowballs, with a pair of Olaf-like eyes in front of them. They reach the vent in the CEO's bedroom. They meld together forming a small snowman, just 2 feet high with a very outsized, at least 6 inches, dangling snowy nose and icy arms, fingers. He looks and listens through the grille. No one is in the room.

The CEO, as planned, is in an emergency meeting, dealing with the attack on his company in Antarctica.

He takes out a large Snowflake. It glows and ice fills the room. He opens the grill and enters the room. He points it at the door. Six inches of ice covers the door, sealing the room.

"That will give me time." He whispers. "The ice will prevent the guards from seeing me clearly, through the cameras. THIS is a statement from Queen Elsa." A giggle, "this will be fun."

He rolls to the computer on the desk against the wall. He reaches into himself, takes out a thumb drive and inserts it into the computer. 'Frigga's programs will drain that dry.'

HE slowly twists around, holding the snowflake out, pointing it at the walls. As it passes the walls, the ice bends and twists. A crack appears in the wall. He goes to it and sees the safe.

The snowman places the Snowflake on the safe and backs up. The Snowflake glows... the metal of the safe shatters. 'I'm not Elsa. Even near Absolute Zero will kill me.' he shudders.

He picks up the snowflake, cautiously, making sure that it has returned to normal. 'Good. Julius will not have to explain to Elsa that I misused and destroyed his Snowflake.'

He shakes his head in disgust, as he remarks to himself, "Julius knows that Elsa ordered this and would understand if anything happened. He's just still upset about Elsa's reaction over the previous time he destroyed a Snowflake."

People begin pounding on the door.

The snowman pulls a couple of small electronic items and some paperwork out of the safe. He places the electronics in a plastic bag, ignoring the cash and jewels.

He rolls to the computer desk and places his hand over the key locked drawer. Ice slides into the keyhole...feels the tumblers and a twist. The drawer opens. 'Frigga spreading that scare about industrial thieves having a hack for computer locks pays off, again.' He thinks as he removes the paperwork.

The thumb drive beeps.

He pulls it out and places it inside his body. He places the Snowflake against the computer. Ice forms inside the computer, expanding until the case top pops off, spitting screws everywhere. He giggles as he does the same thing with the hard drive sub-chassis, 'My favorite thing to do on jobs like this' he grins as he removes the hard drive.

A glide to the attached bathroom. A smile as he sees the 5 pound dumbbells. 'Perfect.'

He places the hard drive and the paperwork in the tub, starts the water, and uses one of the dumbbells as a hammer. As it smashes the hard drive to pieces, the sodden papers fall apart. 'Put those back together again.'

Gliding back to the desk, he pulls out a business card and sets it in front of a picture of the CEO and the Premiere of China shaking hands. 'I know Elsa wanted this on the keyboard.' He looks at the destroyed computer. 'But that is a little too damaged. This will work.'

The Card: Elsa of Antarctica and a phone number.

On the back, in Chinese: Call Me. We have things to talk about. Elsa of Antarctica.

A glance around. A nod. A smile. A giggle. A full-throated laugh and he says, "It's nice to have fun!"

The Snowflake glows.

An ice sculpture of the words, KILROY WAS HERE forms, next to it another sculpture of a mischievous face, looking really similar to his, appears.

A train of small snowballs rolls through the vent system, dragging a small plastic bag behind them.

Comments are very welcome.

thank you for reading

jeff shelton


	8. Chapter 7 Elsa Anna Bjorgman chapter 2

Elsa Anna Bjorgman chapter 2

Thank you to ptahaegyptus2 for your support and Beta.

* * *

Chapter 2 of Elsa Anna Bjorgman

A nod, then, "The next stage: Many Red Cross chapters, either national, or local, had various problems with their accounts. So, beginning in 1883, the Treasurer, my friend, would send a team to help the chapters. There would be some man, with a noble background, or a well-known professor, or just a politician who would the head the team. I would accompany him, with whatever entourage he had, as his assistant. While he was glad handing the leaders of the chapter, I would fix the books and try to get rid of the crooks. As time passed my ability to black ball people became greater and greater."

"This sent me traveling around Europe. We would spend a couple of months and then move on. My network began to grow."

Liam's eyes light up.

"After it became known that I would help people with other accounts. I started to get requests, a favor to a friend requests, to look over accounts about, say, an estate whose accounts just did not look right. More networking."

A look in the distance, " And... I rarely received money for my help. This was a favor, not a business. But... I would receive gifts. Objects of art. Jewelry. As time passed and the size of the favors grew. Houses. Even a couple of estates. This is how I acquired the vineyard I gave Gudrun. Sometimes they would sign over businesses to me."

A pause, a grimace, a sigh, "This is a good place to explain... a behavior that I started to do, that becomes of critical importance in the future."

Liam nods, his eyebrow raises, "Hmm. What?"

"As a Princess, especially one that... that needed exposure, there were expectations. One of them was to become a Patron of the Arts."

Liam nods.

She is speaking in a happy tone, "So, during this time, I began to help various starving artists. Normally... there would be some showing, a museum, an artist alley, somewhere I would meet... artists. I would look and buy Art: Paintings, sculpture, music, antiquities, whatever. If I liked it, I would start to become a Patron of the artist. While that meant buying unsold art and giving him commissions for private pieces, that also meant I would help them out in other ways, like helping them with rent. If the artist got in trouble with the police, I would send them a lawyer. Things like that."

In a sharp tone, she says, "With ONE exception, this was more networking. And, yes, I started my own collections of various artworks."

A sly smile, "I could spend a fair amount of time, name dropping, but I will decline. If everything goes well, Njord has a plan to remove some of the pieces I have stored and put them of display... Queen Elsa's Art or some title like that. He expects it will be very popular."

"You keep it all in storage?" Liam asks.

She shakes her head. "No. About half of my collection is on display in various museums around the world. The pieces are just owned under different names. Again, assuming success, my name will be on them, in time."

"That exception..." Liam eyes narrow, "1909?"

She sighs and nods. "Yes. But, everything in its time."

"Ohhh. I should mention my growing wealth. Being a Patron of the Arts was very expensive. Since John... "A catch in her voice. "committed suicide, I did not have a specialist to help me. I spread his responsibilities among my other children."

A grimace. "That did cause problems. But, still my wealth grew as I invested in the new tech companies, such as automobiles. Given that I did not want to become involved in the day-to-day running of a company, I normally limited myself to a small part of the company and spread the investments across Europe. And as time passed, America and the world, such as Japan."

A sigh, "I should mention that these would be known as secret accounts." A hard look at Liam, "People still did not trust women as business owners, or with any money matters. Most notably in accounts outside Europe, or on the edges of Europe, I used male names for the deals. They were otherwise normal, I just had to hide my female name. And... I knew that sooner or later, this identity would die. Having funds under different names was just being cautious."

"Why did you not replace John?" Liam asks cautiously.

She takes a breath and blows it out. "We are getting back into a place where... language does not work well." Another breath.

"In order to create my children... I need... my soul must be stable. Healthy. I was NOT over my sister's death. My grief damaged me... I could tell that, if I created... during this time frame... I would create monsters. Another reason I tried NOT to use my powers."

Liam looks at Herman. He nods in agreement with his mother.

"In time, I healed. The year 1885 was of great importance to that healing. Early in that year, I had to replace Kai, due to family medical problems. Which reminded me of how...long I will live and how do I react to the deaths of friends? Brooding about them for years and years would not be healthy. So, getting over my remaining grief over Anna, was something I needed to do."

She sighs, "Then, later in that year, Asa had an encounter that taught me that life...Life endures and changes, in surprising ways. As I live, I must endure the deaths of my friends and change to adapt to this world. If I fail to adapt and endure...insanity threatens."

"And, the final part of my healing... I visited Anna's grave for the first time." Tears form and she wipes them. A sniffle. "Standing there. Looking into infinity... I felt that she would want me to live on. As she told me, once. Life is too short."

A small smile, "Of course, making that promise to move on was one thing. Living up to it was another. Still... Joy became easier to find. The Joy of Morning. The Joy of a quiet Snowfall. The Joy of watching an artist work. Simple things that bring happiness."

"In 1901 my joy about my success in creating peace, the overwhelming need to replace John, and simply my desire to create... so Njord was born." a smile. "This is out of sequence, but, since this does not mention the rest of world, I will explain now."

"Eric through Frigga, even John, when they were born... were over powered." A thin smile. "for example: They were all born with the ability, if in a lesser degree, to create snow and ice, like myself. With Njord, I changed how I did things."

A pause. "My knowledge and my soul had grown. That, and the less stress... less power it took for Njord, I knew... that I could create more children. Easier. And I began to think about that." A pause. "And in 1903 Christina was born. Frigga needed help with the scientific side of her research."

She waves at Herman. "The soul pattern I used with Njord, is the one I used with Herman and his immediate sisters and brothers."

Herman purses his lips...

"But to get back to chronological order. By 1890 my reputation for honesty was large and growing. People would approach me, just to sign any business agreement. For it was known that if I entered into a financial deal...that both sides are honest people. I could ruin, and did ruin, people just by a casual comment that I would NOT make a deal with them."

In a very satisfied tone, she says, "If you were part of a peace movement, and to a lessor degree pretty much any social issue, and you needed help, especially with money... Everyone knew that I was the person to start with. While my personal resources were still limited, I could use my network. And the money would appear."

"I did pay close attention to women's rights movements." A smile, "but, most of them were being well run, already. All I had to do was give a list of possible donors and they did the rest."

A very satisfied smile. "Also, as it grew, so did my work with the Norwegian Olympic Committee. And, in 1890, after it formed, the International Committee."

A startled nod from Liam.

"Basically from that point till...1914, I could appear in any city in Europe and I would get noticed and I would be waved into any meeting with just about anyone, with, at worst, a day's delay or so. My formal job title was just an Assistant to the Treasurer of the International Red Cross, but my actual power was large and growing. As was my reputation as a meddler in just about any problem I saw."

A shake of her head, a pause, "Of course, just as things were looking great, I made a mistake. A very human mistake."

She breathes a heartfelt sigh. "In early March 1890 I made a trip to Paris. Rodin had finally agreed to meet with me. I had a special commission for him." A soft look in her eyes. An ice sculpture of a nude Anna, her hands behind her, her eyes closed, her body leaning forward, her lips ready for a kiss. "A bronze statue of Anna. Small, mind you, but once I saw his 'The Kiss', I had to have something from him. During that meeting he agreed to do it. It was very expensive, even for me, given the secrecy I demanded of him."

Another sigh, a happy one though, "I was very happy when I returned to my hotel. The new hotel maid... everyone, saw that I was happy. I did not try to stop showing my joy."

"Rodin agreed to my version of the sculpture. That was the image I wanted to remember Anna by, not the last time I saw her. With that, I finally had something, even if it was long overdue, but, something physical that I could see that was a sign that I was over my grief. And I would instead remember the good times with Anna."

"I had, for that last few years, being thinking about looking for some... companionship. I just...just could not make the first move. Then the new hotel maid began to make advances on me, that night." She waves her hand.

A shake of her head, "I would not use my personal servants that way, even if Gudrun did make an offer, and I feared that if it became known that I was lesbian, that would hurt my goals."

A lick of the lips, "Still that night. I felt so...so happy. I just couldn't say no to her. I did not have to make the first move. And... I thought, not that I was thinking much that night, but I thought it would be a one-night stand and nothing bad would happen."

A thin lusty, perhaps, smile. "That Maid... She was beautiful. She was aggressive. She kissed divinely. And her skills in the bedroom... " A very happy, if not lusty, smile. "The next morning... I felt more alive... more... anything. Than... I had felt in years."

Liam and Richard share a look. Liam looks like he wants to interrupt, but declines.

A sad look, "I did not fall in love. I did fall into lust, though. Until, the next week, when I found out that she was a human shark." A mournful shake. "It took a fortune to get rid of her. I was very afraid, once I found out that a Paris paper had discovered the affair and were about to publish, that my plans were about to collapse."

A snort. "Luckily and unluckily, the day that story was to come out, the news broke that Kaiser Wilhelm II had fired Bismarck. That news saved some of my personal life and to a lessor degree my reputation. But it made my professional life hell: I could make a deal with Bismarck, and had in the past. But Wilhelm...nothing would work with him."

Liam opens his mouth.

A wave of her hand, "Ohh. The story got out, it was just too juicy a story for it not to. But, it happened without the glare of publicity. "

A huge sigh, "And, in the end, it was a major contributing reason in my fall from power. As my power was growing, the people who hated me, were afraid to use it against me. But... As the flames of war grew... they decided that they could use this against me."

A slow shake of her head and a deep breath.

A small smile, "Another thing that the affair did, was to awaken desires I thought were dead. And... I began to look at women again. And... found out that being a rich Princess made it very easy to... have friends, special friends. But, word of my affair did circulate."

She shakes her head, a small depreciating laugh. "I, finally, had to sympathize with all the men whose hopes I had crushed. For that would happen to me. My friend would be told of my... affair and since they did not want that reputation, they would drop me."

Many shakes of her head and in a wry tone, "The first time that happened. I was shocked! I did that to men. People did not do that to me!"

Strangled snorts from Liam and Richard. A shaky smile from Elsa.

Liam asks quickly, "You are not going to tell us her name, correct?"

Elsa nods. "No. And her life afterward... well this gave her a moment of fame. But she was a shark and could not find a way out of the lifestyle. So, as time passed, age and alcohol, damaged, then destroyed her looks. I lost track of her in July 1914. She was a bar maid slash whore in one of the worse slums of Paris. She died, I believe, in the chaos of the opening months of WWI." Sad tone. "Once... things calmed down, I would have helped her. But..." more shakes.

A pause... A lustful, maybe, look in the her face, and she continues.

"Still, though, those... feelings were there. Gudrun, again, like always when dealing with people, would have a workable solution, maybe not one you would want to use, but something. Her solution was that I needed a mistress. I resisted, but, she introduced me to a couple of very experienced women."

With a thoughtful look, she continues. "And... the best explanation I ever heard was from a Japanese Geisha in 1908. A mistress, a good one, is someone who helps you feel good. NOT just physically, but emotionally. Someone that, if they are good enough... makes you feel in love. To have that connection, that companionship... that feeling with someone else." Sigh, "Yes. Giving her the money would be jarring, and get you out of the mood. But, as the Geisha said, with the best Geisha... you felt loved when you handed over your fortune to her."

She nods. "And there were times, when I needed that... Companionship... Especially after 1909. So, in 1894, I set up Analise in a house in Geneva... and every so often, I would visit." An ice sculpture of Analise appears. She is very beautiful lady. "Sometimes just an afternoon. Sometimes a full-scale date at the Opera. Sometimes a picnic. It wasn't love... but it was close. As this life ended... She received a fairly large portion of my public fortune. For a lifetime of friendship and more."

"Setting her up as my mistress helped her and me. Many of the people who I knew and respected had mistresses' at the time. Many wives that I knew had semi-publically known extra-martial lovers at the time."

A laugh, "The problems that caused as I planned parties. Making sure that one would not place the wrong person next to another person. Making sure that the guest quarters had the extra rooms for the mistresses'."

"By acknowledging, if unofficially, that relationship I protected her from rumors. If rumors started about her...that would break the gentlemen's agreement that mistresses' were never mentioned."

"1909. That must have been something horrible for you to keep avoiding explaining about it." Liam asks in a sharp tone.

Queen Elsa looks at him, winter in her gaze. "That mistake changed the world." A cold hard tone. "And something that I never have forgiven myself for."

He licks his lips, "Sorry."

Elsa closes her eyes, and waves her hand. In a kind, soft voice she says. "I should apologize first. You will understand."

"But...To get to the best part of this lifetime. And, except for the years with Anna, the best part of my life, all of my life."

A joyful smile appears on her face...

"All my efforts at peace reached its climax between 1899 and 1906. The first Hague Convention in 1899. The Establishment of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1900. The second Geneva Convention in 1906. I was sooo... proud. Violence... would be contained, channeled. ALL the horrors of war would be limited." Pride shines in her voice.

A grin and a touch to her tablet. "When Queen Victoria died in January 1901, the Geneva paper, Tribune de Geneve, ran this editorial cartoon."

The cartoon is in two panels. In the first panel: On a coffin labeled Queen Victoria is a crown marked 'Queen of Europe', surrounding the coffin is the other reigning Queens of Europe, they are arguing about who gets the crown. The second panel: A slim woman, Elsa, labeled "Princess of Europe" is fitting the crown on her head. It's little big for her head. In a word balloon, from her mouth. 'I will grow into it.' The rest of the Queens of Europe, behind her, nod their acceptance.

"And yes, after her death, I was in almost every way that mattered, the uncrowned Queen of Europe."

A pause, a gulp, a smile that would light up the tower. An ice duplicate of the Nobel medal appears. "My most proud moment was the Peace Prize. I knew Alfred for years, and was an early investor. And it was my behind the scenes influence that stopped the controversies that delayed the foundation of the Prize. Then... I was given the most powerful position I have ever held."

"Which was?"

A smile, "I was the secretary to the Committee. IT does not sound like much. BUT... you had to convince ME, before any name got to them. If I said Yes, and made the right notes about the name. IT would pass. For all intents and purposes I selected who received of the Prize." A laugh. "Which, no doubt, is why I never received it."

Startled snorts from Liam and Richard.

A sad look, a twist and a glance at the seal above her.

"There was a lot of behind the scenes...buzz about me. Mostly fallout from the Paris affair, but other more general...whispers. So, in an attempt to silence some of them... In 1905, when Norway was formally made independent from Sweden, I had my Nephew give up the independence of Arendelle. It was now, officially, part of Norway. And to highlight that change in status, Arendelle became Arendal. Ohh, I kept the title 'Princess of Arendelle', but that was a courtesy title now, no power at all."

She shakes her head. "It was a good decision, but it did not do everything that I had hoped."

A deep sad sigh as she resumes, "And, as always, at the climax of power, the fall begins. The Russian Japanese war was not really a surprise. Japan winning was the shock heard around the world. And...it lit the fuse to war. The fuse that I had spent 25 years trying to cut and almost, almost succeeded."

She shakes her head, her lips purse and tears fill her eyes. "A few more years. If that war could have held off long enough and the habit of peace could strengthen. SO... SO...very close."

Several shakes of her head. "And it was Japan that did it. I was never the person most invested in Japan, but I did have money there... My money caused my downfall."

Liam and Richard look at each other and then Herman. Herman nods.

Richard clears his throat.

She looks at him, "Yes?"

"I can understand your network and it's influence, but...I'm having trouble seeing how powerful that made you?"

She dips her head. "Hhmm. I could use a modern example. But. I will use one from the time."

A purse of her lips, "When Lenin left Russia in 1900, he lived in Zürich. I, like I did with most social causes, began to support him."

Surprised looks on Liam and Richard.

"You...do not know how bad life in Russia was like at that time. Change had to occur. While I never liked the violence in Lenin's outlook, I also knew that some violence would be needed to change Russia into something better." She shrugs. "I was never happy with the deal. He was just the best of a very bad lot. And after the disaster of the attempted Revolution in 1905, I stopped supporting him."

A grimace, "But...to explain how helping him, helped me? If you were in power? Who would you deal with? Lenin or Me?"

"Good cop. Bad cop." Liam states.

"Yes. That isn't totally correct. But it works."

"But?" Richard begins.

"I had my hands and my money stirring the pot all over Europe. I even tried in America, but the distance was too great for it to work well, there. My support of social projects was...enormous, even if it was basically hidden."

Liam asks, "How could you hide something like that?"

"I never accepted any major position in any of the movements I helped. Most of the time, it was a friend to a friend help that had no official position. I was coordinating efforts, pointing out things," She nods at Richard. "Like you do off camera. How good would Liam be without you? But do you , Richard, get public notice?"

Richard looks at Liam.

Liam smiles, "True. Thank you, Richard."

Richard waves him, off, "Hey. That's my job." A narrow look at Elsa. "That was your job."

"My job was peace. My job was helping people." She replies simply but with quiet pride.

A pause.

She continues, "When I chose Roosevelt in 1906, I had doubts. And, as such, I began to plan a trip to the US. To make sure I was right, and I had some dealings with J. P. Morgan that needed a face to face meeting to correct. The second Hague Convention in 1907 delayed my trip, but not by much. Once it began, it was obvious, that unless I wanted to use tactics that would create a massive number of enemies, and even with those tactics. The Convention would be a dead letter once it was over."

A massive sigh. "Such is how quickly power fades. The Convention did do some good, but... not as much as I had hoped for."

"Why did it fade so quickly?" Liam asks.

"My power was informal. A lunch with a government minister. A quiet conversation during a break at the Opera. That sort of thing."

Liam nods.

Ashes are in her voice, "Once the flames of war began, which the Japanese victory started, that informal power came up against Generals and their plans. I could wish for peace. Try to convince people that life would better without war. But they would show troops lining up for war." a flip of her hand. "Oh... my power was still useful. And... the aftereffects of the Paris affair started to show up."

An exhale and a wave of her hand, "Ohh.. they were polite. While they did not use Stalin's words, 'The pope? How many divisions has he got?' That sentiment was in their words."

A shake of her head, "To continue. I had a very tough decision to make. Njord was demanding some sort of trip to the US and other places around the world. However, his disguises would not stand up to such a trip. I had to make it. But...Leaving Europe. Was that a good idea? I decided that it would be several years before things reached a critical stage and I could take the time."

A shrug. "With hindsight. I still can not decide if it was a good idea or not. While there were a couple of crises' in Europe when I was away, my friends handled them...as well as I would have."

A deep breath to begin a story. "So, beginning in November 1907, I began the trip." A rub of her chin, "This was an important trip in various ways, so I will describe it in some detail. I made some good decisions, and I made some choices, that in hindsight, were bad."

"After meeting Roosevelt, I did agree that I chose wisely in 1906."

A grin, "Even the tactics of this interview is loosely based on his 'Speak softly and carry a big stick.' strategy. I am doing everything I can do to speak softly. My power," A flare of snow,"is my big stick."

Liam, Richard and Herman share a laugh.

"The face to face to JP Morgan was successful. His people were knowingly making mistakes on my accounts and some on of my friends. He knew of it and did not stop them. I had him by his balls and he could feel it. He was lucky, however, the financial Panic of 1907, had started, so... I could not squeeze as hard I had wished to."

A nod to Herman and grin at Richard, "That meeting, though, convinced me that Njord's request for a person in the US to handle accounts, was a good idea. Richard, my son, was born in New York City in 1908."

Richard's jaws drop.

"He is in charge of my US accounts. He still has offices in New York, and is the number 2 in Njord's finance division."

Liam frowns, "Queen Elsa the way you talk... it is as if your children are born...fully functional?"

Elsa straights up in the her throne. "I thought..." A nod. A look to Herman, "If you could?"

Herman rubs his eyebrows as he thinks, "This, like always when talking about magic, is difficult to put into words. I'm going to use various terminology, not because it is correct. BUT... because it is close enough and you will understand faster."

Liam nods.

He continues, "Queen Elsa...encodes in our magical DNA some basic knowledge and skills. Languages, cultural background. Knowledge of a basic moral code. Skills that she thinks that we need. In my case, she wanted, needed a soldier, so she gave me the skills she thought I needed." A dirty look at Elsa.

Elsa shrinks in her throne. "I am not a soldier. I am pacifist. I did not give you the wrong knowledge."

"That's true. You could have given us different, better skills and knowledge, though." Herman looks at Liam, "I'll explain that more fully when Queen Elsa gets to our birth and the immediate aftermath."

"Ok..."

Herman starts again, "As such when we wake up... we generally can act and react normally."

"So... instant people?"

Elsa grimaces. "It looks like it." A pause and a sigh, "It is more complex than what he has described. And except for Marshmallow and Olaf, I try to give my children time to adjust to reality, before tasking them. And, as has happened, if they say no. I will change what I want them to do."

"Hmmm? Liam asks.

"When Krol was born..."

Herman shakes his head, and covers his mouth, to hide the laugh.

"He told me in no uncertain terms that, he was not a soldier. He was a poet. And his poetry is beautiful. He has published under various names over the years " Elsa purses her lips. "So, he's one of Frigga's assistants now. Good man. Excellent programmer. He just gets distracted sometimes.."

She nods to Liam and starts speaking, "After that, Detroit. The auto industry was a major player and I wanted to see the US side of the business. Oh...general business deals, nothing special. Just... just profitable."

She looks at the camera, "So far, There is nothing that I've done that I have regretted, later."

Liam starts to play with his laptop, searching for something...

"If auto's were the coming thing, then oil would necessary. so... Off to New Orléans. Between the Panic and rumors of a crazy rich European lady wanting to buy swamp land. I could have bought the state. Well, almost. As it was, I contacted JP Morgan, squeezed him, and got the loans I needed to buy a goodly portion of the better oil fields in Louisiana and East Texas. Ahhhh..."

She continues in a sorrowful tone, "Later... Beginning in the 1950's I started to divest myself from all oil fields. But... And I know if I did not do it, others would have used those fields. And I used the wealth I received in ways to help people, but...it's one of the nightmares..."

Herman pats her shoulder. She lightly grins at him.

"Then San Francisco for the liner to Japan. During a delay there, I helped the Red Cross chapter there recover from the earthquake."

"Hawaii." A shake of her head. "I can appreciate the beauty. BUT... It is just not my type of place."

"Tokyo." A sad look in her eyes. "They were so proud that they beat Russia. So striven to prove themselves. That they were as good as any European. I knew that I needed someone in Asia, either in Japan or China, to keep an eye on things."

A shake of her head. "After a week, I decided on Tokyo. My daughter, Mizuki was born. I chose a female personality... simply because I felt she could mix in better than a male would. The quick friendship with the Geisha I mentioned earlier, no doubt helped. I left her with the Geisha, since my knowledge of the culture was," shakes head "at best inadequate, and.. most of it was wrong. She needed someone to show her the ropes."

A large somber sigh,"Of all my children, Mizuki had the roughest time. She was alone and on the other side of the world from me. Which meant... I did not see her again until 1923. Then it was 1930. Then the 6 months in 1935. A very quick meeting in 1944. And that is all the time I ever had with her.. I never... I just wish I could have spent more time with her." A very sorrowful tone, a brush of her hand against her cheek to clear the tears.

A nice smile appears as she says. "On the other hand... from what she told me in letters and in person. She found love... A legendary magical Japanese being fell in love with her and their love..." She rubs more tears from her eyes. "Was great... as great, if not more so, than my love for Anna."

Herman hugs her. "I know, mother."

A lull, then...

"And now, like the oil fields, another decision that at the time was correct. But, in hindsight was doubtful."

"I decided that China, given the pressure being placed on it from Japan and European powers, would not adjust like Japan had. I expected it to fall into civil war. So... my love of art caused me to decide to save as many Chinese objects of art as I could."

A sigh. "I paid more than anyone else. And, to guard against thieves, I also demanded a clear paper trail on ownership. But... however I might wish to rationalize it. I must face reality."

"I spent a month looting China." She finishes in a very flat voice.

"They are going to love to hear that!" Liam says in a startled voice.

Elsa nods. "I expect that in the course of the coming negotiations, my collection will be mentioned."

A tap on the tablet and holos of Chinese art objects begin to cycle. "Since my reason was that I was saving them from war, my intentions were to return them, eventually. So, aside from some minor pieces with the most questionable paperwork given to some of my children, the collection is still intact." A tap and the show ends.

"Why haven't you given it back?"

"War... Then Mao. Who I would never give it to. In the 1970's I reorganized and researched the items, I was going to give them back, but by that time, my environmental goals were in force. And... every time I'm about to give it back, some environmental disaster or something political would happen, like the Rice Riots of 2042 and I would put it off."

"I'm not looking forward to the coming meetings." She finishes in a sad tone.

"Actually," Richard asks, "Why did you mention it at all?"

She looks at Richard. "I will be honest."

Richard, startled, nods. "Thank you."

Queen Elsa nods and looks at Liam, "Questions?"

"I don't suppose that you'll give us your strategy at those meetings?"

Elsa shakes her head, no.

Liam, then, says,"Then not really. I'm just waiting for 1909. If it makes these mistakes look small, then I wonder what happened in 1909."

"These are not small mistakes." Very firm voice. "It is just that the other is sooo great."

Liam nods and grimaces.

"To continue then. Singapore. A pest hole. I still can not stand the city." she states with disgust in her voice.

Firm voice as she explains. "Bombay. Another city that I do not like. Talks with the British companies I had investments in. Finally, I could get their accounts fixed. And, with me on hand, they had to fire the crooks. I just could not get that done from Europe." A sigh. "Not that it helped. As soon as I was gone, they rehired some of them. They did not even try to hide them under different names. Very frustrating."

A brilliant smile, "I did take time to visit the Himalayas. Just the foothills, really. But...enough that I made promise to myself to return and explore them, thoroughly."

A disgusted shake of her head and she continues in a scornful tone. "Then the Suez canal and the obligatory trip the pyramids. I very much wish I could say something nice here. But... I can not. Too hot, of course. And then, the attitudes of Arabs... I was a woman and as such, beneath their feet. Eric had to deal with them. Very...Very." Her teeth grind.

"If I ever lose my temper during this.. the next few months. It will be because of them. Or maybe some other extreme person that feels that women are worthless." she finishes in a repugnant tone.

Liam and Richard look at each other. Look at Herman.

He says in a careless tone, "Hey don't look at me. I am a soldier. Kill them all and let Allah sort them out. Yeah it IS wrong, but there are times... Especially after that attempt to nuke Rome in 2027. Be grateful that Canute was in the area. IF he wasn't there we would have lost the city."

"You were the cause of..."

"Of the destruction of the camp on Mt. Damavand?"

Liam nods.

"Not me. Queen Elsa was mad. That was Asa with Elizabeth's team as backup. They are really lucky that Asa's orders were very specific."

"The camp, even the hill where they had concealed the tunnels... were flattened." An awed tone.

"That is Asa being nice." Herman says in a flat voice.

A look at Queen Elsa, a Mona Lisa smile on her lips.

"You do not want to make her angry." Herman says, "you really, really do not want Asa angry."

"She is the small one, right?" Liam asks.

Herman nods. "Do not call her small, please."

"OK..."

"From there," Elsa begins to speak again. "Athens, and then rail to Geneva."

A semi-smile on her face as she gently taunts Liam, "And the year is 1909."

He smiles and brightens. You can see him thinking. Finally... something really juicy.

"I took a quick glance at the Bosnian Crisis of 1908-1909." Liam begins as he looks at his laptop and the page of information that he has waited to use. "And, I do not see anything that would cause the distress you have shown, Queen Elsa."

Unnoticed by Liam. Joan slides into the room. She stays by the door, watching.

Elsa nods, "You are correct, Liam. I wasn't even in Europe, at the time. I arrived at Athens in May 1909. the Crisis finished in April. My friends" a sigh. "Handled it about as well as I could. OH.. I might have been more polite. But.. It did not matter." A gloomy shake of her head.

She explains in a professional tone, "After Austria-Hungry seized Sarajevo and the area around it. WWI would start, and as Bismarck predicted, it would be ignited in the Balkans. The only questions were when... and would that war engulf just the Balkans or all of Europe."

A pause, and then she states. "My guess in 1909, was June to August 1915... something would happen in Serbia, a riot perhaps, against Austria-Hungarian interests and it would send in an army 'protect' it's citizens and the war would start. With luck... I could contain it to the Balkans...but that was a wish. A wish that... I did not think would succeed."

A deep sigh. "The various Balkan wars between 1911 and 1913, tested my guess. But I, working with others, was able to prevent WWI from starting then."

"Still... what happened?" Liam asks in a desperate tone.

The ice of walls change color to yellow. Ripples begin to show in the ice.

A still tone. "In June 1909, I visited Vienna." A sigh. "One of my favorite cities. The various Art related schools, institutes, the street life... After Geneva, it was just about my favorite city. Paris and London were close, but..."

The tower creaks...

An outraged hiss, "I went there to talk to the government and, basically, gave them a piece of my mind, about their stupidity. I left that meeting... I was furious and in one of the worse moods I had been in since the death of Anna. Soooo many dreams were dying... and, short of using my powers to declare myself the Ice Queen of Europe, I could not find a way to stop their deaths. And even more so, when it was not just dreams dying, but, their coming physical deaths."

Herman grabs her shoulder. Joan moves to her and grabs the other. Comforting her, or trying to.

"A friend, a good friend, the head of the student selection committee of the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna met me and tried to improve my mood. Good...well intention idea... and it went so wrong..." A dying tone.

The ice is more red than yellow. Small spikes grow...

"He knew that helping people would improve my mood. And he had a suggestion. In 1908 a young artist tried to gain admission to the Academy, but failed to enter. The Academy was looking for more portrait artists, not the architectural artist that the young man was. Soo... because he liked to paint houses, not people, he did NOT get into the Academy." A forlorn tone. A heartbroken look.

Eric, Frigga, and Olaf appear as holograms. They are not here physically, but, what support they can give her, they will.

"My friend knew of my love of Architecture and the fact that I had helped other similar artists. He also knew that the artist was in dire financial trouble. He was living in a homeless shelter." Doleful tone. Hurting expression.

The ice is RED. The spikes are large. The Tower groans...

"And I meet him." dead timbre. Cheerless countenance.

Liam and Richard look around in fear. Herman moves to comfort them. Joan moves next to Elsa.

"ALL... ALL it would have taken, was a glance at my friend, a mention that I would appreciate a re-look at this application. AND. He would be accepted. Trained as a professional artist. An account would be set up and he would have money, not a lot, but something. He had the raw skill. The Drive. The Intensity. Everything he needed but the training and an introduction to people. ALL I needed to do was be generous and helpful. Like I had been for dozens and dozens of other artists." Heartrending tone and delivery.

Joan wraps her arms around Elsa. Elsa places her head on her shoulder, a shudder. A hush...silence.

"BUT... when I touched his hand... MY soul rejected HIS... IT took all my years of experience, two working lifetimes... AND I still almost threw up on him. His touch was sooo corrupt. So Villainous. so...Malevolent. The only human I have ever encountered that... felt as bad as him... was Joseph Stalin." Elsa's eyes close in remembered pain. Her voice cracking from it.

Flakes of Ice appear and hang suspended in the air. Moments later they turn RED. The floor of the tower trembles.

A lifeless voice. A face full of torment. "I, with all my strength, was polite. I bought a half-dozen of his paintings. I paid him enough money to keep him off the streets for six months. Then I returned to my house in Vienna and threw up. I spent hours trying to wash the memory of his soul from my hand."

A whisper of death...

"I tried to forget, with all my soul, Adolf Hitler."

* * *

silence...

The sound of Liam's laptop hitting the ice floor.

"Mother?" Joan whispers into the echoes.

Elsa hugs her and says in a quiet whisper, "I'm better than I was with Anna's death. Unlike HER... I relive that encounter with him... at least once a month in my nightmares."

The air clears. The ice flakes return to their places.

"Yes, I know." Joan whispers back. Herman nods, in sympathy.

Elsa looks at Eric.

"Elsa you are stressing yourself far more than any of the trail runs we had." He says in a careful voice.

She nods. "Real life is always more stressful, than pretend."

A semi-hard tone, "I know mother. But."

"I know Eric. But after WWI and especially after WWII...things calm down. I can cover those years in less detail. However...the people of the world need, no, must, know about my actions during these critical war years. Especially because of what is to come."

He purses his lips, and reluctantly nods. A look to the side. "The meeting here ran over time. But it was well received."

Elsa raises an eyebrow, "The connection between us works both ways. There was a lot more emotions there than planned as well."

He sighs, "Yes. Ahhh... When you get a chance, I do need to brief you about some details."

The spikes fade. The light is soft white. Everything is back to normal.

Elsa nods, "when I get to 1920, and my new life..." she looks at Liam. "Can we take 10 or 15 minutes?"

He nods vigorously as he clutches his laptop.

"Until then, Queen Elsa." Eric vanishes.

"Olaf?" Elsa asks.

"Even after all these years, Elsa..." He says in a sad tone.

A dip of her head. "The nightmares."

He nods. "YOU are not responsible for his future actions."

"We've had this conversation before, Olaf. IF I had done, what I SHOULD have done. He would have brought into my circle of Artists, given support, given help. Talking with me, becoming a friend of mine WOULD have changed him." Desperate tone. Pleading look.

Olaf shakes his head, "He still would have fought in the war. The life in the trenches and LIFE-changing events and bonds that occur there... still would have changed him. His life, after WWI, would still be... have been very close to what happened in real life." In a calm reasoned tone, talking about a subject that he has spoken of many times.

Elsa closes her eyes, tears squeeze out. Her body shivers. "An argument that is unprovable either way."

"As always." Olaf replies, "Be at peace, Elsa. Be happy. Laughter is the best medicine! Please!" He smiles, his faces twists, full of humor in its intensity.

A faint smiles appears on her lips. Her hand passes through his hologram. "Thank you, Olaf. As always. Just talking with you makes me feel better."

"Hey! If I can not make a person feel good. I'm doing something wrong!" His smile exaggerates in size. He pulls his head off and turns it upside down. The smile now looks like a frown. "Let's turn that frown into a smile!" He flips his head and puts it back on, still smiling.

The smiles grows on Elsa's face. An exhilaration. A nod. "I will, Olaf."

"See you, later!" And he vanishes.

"You should feel pleased about this, Queen Elsa." Frigga states. "All the projections are strongly in our favor. Near the projected maximums."

Queen Elsa slowly inclines her head. A true smile grows. "Thank you, Frigga. I will continue baring my soul."

Frigga nods and vanishes.

"Do you want me to stay?" Joan asks.

Elsa shakes her head, no. "I'll be fine. Talking about the years of depression that WWI caused... I can handle."

"If... you are sure?"

Elsa smiles and pats Joan's head. Joan looks at Herman.

He nods. She leaves the room.

"Why... You obviously felt something. How did you know?" Liam begins to ask in a breathless voice.

"How did I know his future?" Elsa responds. "I did not know anything. I just... my soul rejected his. That was all that I knew at the time."

A slow shake of the her head. "It was not until the 1990's, that I figured it out." A pucker of her lips.

"Of all the explanations...that I planned on talking about during this... Other than talking about the creation of souls, this is the most... paradoxical. The most twisted." She says in a slow, quiet voice.

In a determined tone, she continues, "Powerful events echo in time and space both in reality and Metaphysically. Magically. Time is far more complex than current math can describe." A hologram appears between her hands. A multicolored line. A bump in the line. Waves of light flow from it, both ways. "Most of those echoes occur after the event. BUT... the echo can occur before the event."

Her lips bend, "People can, rarely, feel those echoes. Deja Vu is the most common example. I had, even before this, begun to have impressions of people when I was around them. I dismissed this as simply my lifetime of experience, telling me something about them."

Liam's eyes open wide.

"As my power grew, I began to...to feel the echoes of my future more and more. And how I interact with people." A thoughtful smiles appears. "And, before you ask, I can not foretell the future. At least not in the way that you are thinking about."

A low laugh. "The same raw untrainable power that allows me to feel those echoes...also brings many of them to me. The echoes act, react, and interact with each other. And given the many people who I meet and my decisions influence, the number of echoes that my existence causes is large. The old saying applies: garbage in, garbage out. The echoes are bits of partial data...all mixed up. They interfere with each other...and ALL I get, except in rare cases, is chaos."

Another thin laugh. "One of my major problems with WWI... was about this. So...many people that I knew and liked were having life-changing events. I had to control this...this chaos in my mind, or go insane. In 1927, I spent 6 months in the Himalayas, being helped by some monks, trying to, and in the end succeeding in, learning how to build walls to keep these echoes out of my mind."

A wave of her hand. "What happened with him in 1909. My soul, hearing the echoes of my... future feelings of him, rejected him. I had no conscious part of it. It was a total surprise to me." A quirk of her lips. "Another reason that I try to avoid touching people."

A look down, a heavy-hearted tone, "It takes a very powerful event to get through my defenses."

Richard's eyes narrow and he blurts out, "You're trying to change the future!"

End chapter

I am sorry, but if Elsa is to live through the ages. Mentioning people like him and her actions, or non-actions, must be explained.

Thank you for reading

jeff shelton


	9. Chapter 8 Elsa Anna Bjorgman chapter 3

Chapter 3 of Elsa Anna Bjorgman

Thank you to ptahaegyptus2 for your support and Beta.

* * *

A hard look, "Existence is about changing the future, Richard."

"You know what I mean." He replies, testily.

Time, appears to pause, as Elsa considers, thinks... And decides…

A deep breath. "Yes. I feel... a storm. Oh, protecting Antarctica and letting my children act freely are real reasons and real goals. The planning for that began long before I felt...this storm. But." her eyes close. "There is something, I believe, very...evil coming."

She shakes her head. "The chaos...the echoes... Nothing I can use." she says in a thin voice.

She continues in a firmer voice, more sure of herself. "Right now, stabilizing the world is my goal. Bringing peace... will... I will prevent, will slow...the storm. So...I can help the world survive the coming storm. Unfortunately, I do not trust any of the leaders of this planet. So... I must lead. There is no one else. "

_'I trusted others during WWII and they failed, so now I must do it myself.' _She thinks sadly.

"What did you do to him?" Liam asks.

Elsa replies in a firm voice, "Nothing. I did send Eric to watch him. I later rotated in Ragnhild and Asa. For a year afterward, I had him watched by my children. AND nothing... A struggling artist, nothing special. I could find no reason for my reaction."

A pause. "As war tensions increased, I needed my children elsewhere, so, I switched to human detectives to look after him. Still nothing. During WWI, I did lose track of him. Once he reappeared after WWI, I did track him again. Due to other factors, which I will get into in my next life, I stayed away from him."

"You did nothing?" Richard asks.

Elsa shrugs, "What was I to do, Richard? He was doing nothing wrong. And, while I did not agree with some his sentiments included in the reports I read. That was no reason to do anything to him."

She sighs, and shakes her head. "I think I covered him enough. At least for now. I will return to him, the next time I meet him in 1936." She says in a strong voice.

Liam and Richard look at each, and shrug. "You know that I'll be asking more questions." Liam states.

Elsa nods. "Of course."

She closes her eyes, "I had planned on a couple of... good stories, to lighten the mood. But... I find myself." A deep breath and a shake of her head.

A twitch of her lips, "Just... Asa fell in love with Sherlock Holmes stories. So, when someone gets a chance, ask her how she solved the case of the stolen Mona Lisa in 1911. The police brought in my friend Pablo in for questioning, so I sent her to help him. I promised her that I would mention that story."

"Pablo?" Liam asks.

"Pablo Picasso. He gave Asa a portrait of herself, as thanks." She replies in a calm voice.

Both mouths gape open.

"I told you I could name drop."she says in flat tone... if with a hint of humor in her voice.

A slash of her hand. "But... is there any questions before I get to July 1914 and WWI?"

Liam looks at his laptop and starts scrolling pages.

"I have something, Queen Elsa," Richard says.

She nods, "Go ahead, Richard?"

"You had normal people working for you. Over the years, probably a lot. How come," He waves to Herman, "your Icemen were never noticed. As you said, this wasn't a small town in the middle of nowhere, but major cities in Europe. The disguises you mentioned would be fine for occasional use. But, day after day? Especially with people that they would work with on a daily basis?"

Elsa nods as she considers the question. "Reasonable enough, and while I use similar tactics today, telling a couple of stories, would not hurt anybody alive now."

A shift to a side, a brush of her hair, "The first would be about my long-term butler Cogsworth. He replaced Kai, jr. in 1885 and stayed with me throughout the rest of this life. So, how did I get such a good man to work for me?"

Richard nods, "Reasonable enough, Queen Elsa."

"By early 1885, Kai... I had to find a replacement to let him go home, especially as his mother was in very poor health. By that time, I had enough control of my movements with the Red Cross that I could choose an assignment in London, so I could look around and find someone."

A smile, "Luckily, a Duke who loved to gamble on his own unfortunately losing horses, had money problems. His choice to solve those problems, instead of selling his horse stable, or even his hunting lodge in Scotland, was to... for all intends and purposes auction off his butler. Or, more accurately, his personal butler had two sons, both with fine reputations, and he decided that he did not need one of them. So, he invited...interested parties out for a month-long stay at his country manor."

"Auction?" Richard asks in a very puzzled voice.

She shrugs, "Pretty much. Oh. It was a long process. That was why the extended stay. So, the people interested could have time to examine him. But, everyone knew that the Duke needed money, and would be paid, before he would let Cogsworth or his brother leave his service."

"That sounds..." Richard begins to say.

"Not that exceptional. The amount was. But having to...gift something to the Master of the household when servants, especially good, long-term ones, changed houses was common."

"As a Princess... and because I just saved another Duke a great deal of embarrassment in his accounts, I managed to get an invitation. The fact that my entourage was just myself, my butler Kai and my maid Johanna helped a lot."

A smile appears, "All those English Aristocrats, with a cute little Norwegian Princess. But... I was a hit. My stories, legends of my homeland. Well, modified versions of my adventures, was very well received. I did a great deal of successful networking, no matter what happened."

Her smiles grows, "Still, I was the last one that was given time with Cogsworth. I basically offered him adventure. Not the boredom of a country estate." A pause. "And, to prove my trust in him, I showed him my magic." A puff of snow.

Elsa smiles, "I knew that I had won the next morning. The way the other servants of the manor as they reacted to me. Before...they were well-trained servants to a visiting quest. That morning, I was the Mistress."

A sigh, "Of course, I did have to deal with the Duke. But, that was simple. Before I left London, I visited the gambling houses and bought some of his debts." Her smile grows, "The houses were firm believers in 'a bird in hand, is worth two in the bush.' Given the Duke's past, bad, payment history, I bought them very cheaply."

"I gave him the opportunity to tear them up. He agreed." She finishes, smiling. "Overall, probably the best deal I ever made. Defiantly in the top ten."

Elsa looks at Richard, "As far as for the maids and other servants, goes. I continued my habit from Arendelle and kept plucking people from the gutter of life." A wave of her hand. "Some, most really, did not work out. But, the ones that did...their loyalty was life-long."

"If they were... from the gutter of life, surely, as you grew in power, spies or such..." Richard begins to ask.

Elsa nods as she interrupts, "Oh, yes. People spying on the household was a common problem. For new girls, it was simple. I told them that if someone wants to give them money for... information, that they were to tell me. I would let them keep the money. I just needed to know what was happening."

Richard nods.

She explains, "If, and this was at the height of power, if they did not tell me about an attempt, within a couple of weeks... Well, the girl would not work out. Moving her to another location, as by then I had houses scattered over Europe, was the normal solution."

A mischievous smile, "All that experience from right after the week of Frozen, when the special envoys plagued me, came in handy. So, setting up, well... stories out of espionage tales was not easy... but did happen."

Sigh, "But again, I do not want to take up time with spy stories."

A pause and she continues, "I did go through a fair number of people, though." She waves her hand. "That did cause Cogsworth a lot problems, as he had to keep training new people. But. That did help, as well. With that turnover, most of the girls never had a chance to put two and two together about my children."

A nod to Richard, "So, my... personal servants were either long-term, highly trusted individuals or short-term servants that were never a major danger."

"How did Cogsworth react to them, your children?" Liam asks.

"As you would expect from a world-class butler. As if everything was normal." Another burst of laughter. "For a while, Ragnhild tried, on an almost daily basis, to do... some stunt to crack his face..."

A pause, a whisper, a tear, maybe, "good times..."

A deep breath, a look to Richard, "Acceptable?"

"What about people just causally bumping into them. They are cold. Wouldn't that be noticed?" He asks in return.

"Ahh. First, most of the time, my children wear heavy clothes, so the temperature difference isn't strong. Most people will not notice it, or if they do... Since stopping and trying to figure it out takes some time and effort, most people do not take the time."

A sly smile. "Second, of course there were snooping busy bodies, noisy neighbors, etc. When that happened we handled it on a case by case basis. There are some interesting stories, but we managed it. Do you need details?"

Richard shakes his head, no.

"Liam?"

He shakes head, "Everything is Hitler."

She sighs. " As expected... very well. 1914, then."

A glaze over her eyes appears as she thinks. "July... After the assassination of the Archduke, I visited Vienna to give my condolences. I never really liked him. His obsession with hunting was not something I approved of, but I was polite. However my connections in the government told me that the Foreign Minister Count Berchtold was going to use that private loss... to give an ultimatum to Serbia."

A sigh and shake of her head and in an angry tone she states, "He, more than anyone else, is the cause of the war. He was the pebble that started the landslide."

Another deeper sigh, "He and I... we had previous issues... so he did not listen, when I told him that his idea was wrong. I had burned my bridges with him earlier while stopping other crises from exploding."

A look at Liam, her right hand rises and she holds her forefinger and thumb close together. "I was so...disgusted with the situation, that I came that close to freezing his heart. Not killing him, just enough to disable him. While he was recovering that would give time for the crisis to fade and war would be stopped."

A rub of her face, and in sad voice, "However. I had already decided that war was unavoidable. So... that action would NOT stop the war. ALL it would do was delay it. And... I was sure that others... would... stop him, like happened during the earlier Balkan Wars. So, I did not do it."

A deep sigh, and she continues in a down tone, "As Burke said 'the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' This is a, if not THE, classic example of the truth of that statement "

Another sad expression, and another dull tone, "In hindsight... That was a mistake. There is always hope." A determined look, "In my despair about the coming war, I forgot that."

A grimace. "My... nightmares about the coming war were already damaging my... peace of mind. And... while I would like to use that as an excuse... I will not."

"Nightmares?" Liam asks.,

Elsa nods. "Once... I touched him, that sensitized me. And... the echoes became stronger. In addition, the closer in time to the Event i get... more echoes appear." A slow shake of the head.

She continues is a slightly disgusted tone, "In 1910, in an attempt to find a... to get better... I visited Dr. Freud." She frowns. "That ended badly. He ripped up his notes and I stormed out with my nose held high."

A look at the camera. "I know that psychiatrists do a great deal of good. But my first negative impression..." she dramatically sighs.

She continues, "By July 1914." She shakes head. "I was getting maybe three or four hours of sleep a day. I was not falling to pieces. But...I was not up to doing much, either."

An exhale, "Between my...depression as I watched 35 years of work go up in flames and my nightmares. I had to leave, retreat... find something. I returned to Arendelle a couple of days after that interview, hoping... "

A shake of her head. "I visited my mentor Pabbie and explained, again, what was happening. He, although dragging it out of him was a chore, did not know anything either. He DID, finally helped me create a spell that could, if you would, wall out the echoes." A thin smile. "It helped. Although I had to visit Pabbie every so often to recast the spell."

"As the countdown to war reached its climax, with an uplifted spirit, I returned to Geneva. The Red Cross must help civilians in war. And I was going to make sure it did so." Pride and determination shines in her eyes and voice.

Her smile grows, "And... it did. Even though, no one had dreamed, no, had nightmares of the conditions we would face."

Queen Elsa stands up and begins to walk around the room.

Herman moves to the wall, watching her.

Joan appears in the doorway.

The light in the room fades.

Liam looks around. Something...is about to happen. But what?

Richard stands up holding the camera, to keep it trained on her.

"In mid-December 1914, I received a request to visit England. One of my friends needed some advice. Not a problem. I needed to visit London, anyway." A pause, a shake of her head. "On January 13, 1915, my friend tricked me. Blinker Hall was waiting for me at my friends mansion." (author's note: the next few sentences are basically REAL.)

"Blinker Hall?" Liam asks.

A smile, "His name: William Reginald Hall. Then, a Captain in the British Royal Navy. James Bond is a lesser copy of him. At the time the Director of Naval Intelligence. AND... the man who won the war."

Puzzled looks on both Liam and Richard. "HUH?" slips of their mouths.

"He was the man who convinced the United States to enter the war in 1917. Without that support... Germany would have won in 1918." Her voice is full of surety. "Later, he was promoted to Admiral."

A sigh, "He was also the favorite nephew of the British special envoy to Queen Elsa of Arenelle in the 1850's and later. And, due to listening to stories of his uncle, reading his diaries and his looking up the original reports from the 1838 incident, HE knew about me and had a good idea about the strength of my powers."

A laugh, as she twists walking around her throne. "That was one of the greatest surprises of my life. And... just about the only time that someone has put my history and powers together, without me giving them some hints."

A sigh, "There are times...after his death. His intelligence and wisdom... He was of the very few people who I've met that I..." A pause.

"What did he want?" Liam asks.

The room goes gray... the temperature falls…

"He had a plan to win the war." She replies in a low, dismal voice. "He wanted me to create a blizzard over occupied Belgium and France. Maintain it, in place, for weeks. Continue dumping yards of snow, man-killing winds and temperatures and... damage, if not destroy the German army in northern France."

In a grief-stricken tone, "He wanted me to kill thousands, hundreds of thousands of people..." Her voice fades to silence.

The light vanishes…

silence…

The light returns, low, low yellow light, giving the people in the room...ghastly shadows.

Tears fill her voice as she says, "That argument... Eventually, I convinced him that I would not... could not... and will not do that." Her eyes close in pain. "Of course, he with his knowledge, he still had me over a barrel. So... I had to offer him something."

She walks over to Herman. "So... I offered him a unit of Ice soldiers. He accepted." She places her hand on Herman. "Joan and the rest of my military children."

Joan slides over and places her hand on Elsa's shoulder. "Mother?"

"I'll be fine, Joan."

The lights and temperatures return to normal.

"I returned to Arendelle... and with Pabbie on hand to help keep my mind and soul together. I created, gave birth, to a platoon's worth of Icemen over the next six weeks. One or two a day, with time to rest between. I used a chess set as my guide when I was..."

She reaches out and grabs Joan and Herman and hugs them. "After giving birth to them... I was still weak and stayed at my Ice Palace for a couple of months afterward, recovering."

"Anything, Liam?" she asks as she hugs her children.

His eyes wide, he asks. "Jesus.. Was he right? Could you have done that?"

Queen Elsa nods. "Oh... It would have been exhausting, but within my capabilities."

Silence.

Liam licks his lips. "You really want people to like you, don't you? You don't need..."

"No. Liam. I NEED people's help and support. Never doubt that." She breaks in with a smile. "And yes, I do want people to like me."

Her voice hardens into ice. "Caligula's 'Oderin Dum Metuant'. OR in English 'Let them hate me as long as they fear me.' is one of the most evil concepts in existence."

Liam, his eyes large, nods.

Richard, though, asks, "Would it worked, could you have stopped WWI? And saved all the people who died later?"

Elsa grimaces and in a cheerless voice, replies, "Yes and No, Richard. Something that powerful... probably would have stopped the war. Wilhelm and his government were not insane."

A distressed sigh, "BUT... It would have led to the Ice Queen declaring war on Humankind."

Richard's eyebrow raises in question.

"My mind...my soul. The depression I was suffering from was not a great as the one I had after the death of Anna, but. IT was there. At home, with Pabbie's help, I could hold my soul together and create my children. IF only, because I was giving them... a very, very small amount of power." She explains in a bleak tone.

"Maintaining my power at the levels needed for that blizzard... Would have eroded my soul. After a month..." She shakes her head. "I would not have been human. Just... the Ice Queen."

"And she...She would kill far...far more people than any that died during that war...or any war." Queen Elsa whispers, almost to herself…

Silence.

Liam looks at Joan. She nods firmly. "YOU will obey the Ice Queen or die. And even in death she can find you." She states.

Liam and Richard shiver at the tone. A very deadly tone.

A deeper silence.

A pause, and Elsa continues. "There were other my practical reasons, as well."

"In order to affect that big of an area, I would have to... release all my power. And...the healing ability I had after the week of Frozen, would NOT have saved everyone. Not to mention all the deaths that WERE the intended result."

A pause and deep breath, "And remember, given the size of the storm, as well as the German soldiers, I would be killing a large number of civilians, Belgians and Frenchmen. Plus, it would kill off the horses, cows... most of the animals in the area as well. Also, the plant life that it have destroyed." She shakes her head.

She finishes in a hitched voice, as she rubs tears away, "I just could not do it. Blinker eventually understood."

"What is the difference between then and now?" Liam asks.

She replies, "First, this is a defensive act. I am protecting Antarctica. Offensive actions are not planned. Oh...if attacked, I and my children will defend ourselves and will, if needed, counterattack in limited ways. This is NOT a mass offensive act, like I described. Second, my powers are greater and more controlled. That type of blizzard is not needed."

Liam nods.

A sad smile and she starts again, "Blinker Hall accepted my offer, he was thinking that he would be getting a unit of soldiers with the powers of Eric. Unfortunately, between the nightmares and my depression about WWI, I was...very cautious when creating my children. I very carefully did not give them many powers. Just...not much."

A pause as she considers her wording, "Not to mention...simply. My difficulty at...gifting anyone with the raw aggression a soldier needed. Marshmallow has a great deal of aggression. And, between, my experience with him and my pacifism..."

A tight squeeze for Joan and Herman. "Later, I have gifted them with more powers. BUT during WWI.."

"We were woefully underpowered," Joan says. "Which is why we lost Gadian and Zalog during the war."

"There were other reasons, Joan," Herman says, respectfully.

Joan snorts and nods in agreement.

Elsa releases them, turns to look at them, "Why don't you explain that?"

Herman looks at Joan. She shrugs. "You have practiced it, go ahead."

Herman steps forward and nods to Liam and then the camera. "This goes back to the previous comments about how much knowledge and skills we were born with."

Liam nods. "OK."

Herman looks at Elsa, "When she was gifting us with knowledge and skills. Her perception of what a good soldier needed was...incomplete."

Elsa nods. "I saw soldiers as obedient men, who caused problems when they disobeyed orders." A quick smile, "The Geneva Convention rules, in part, were about what would happen to soldiers that became disobedient and hurt people. And my knowledge of combat skills, especially with modern non-magical weapons...was very small, so all I could do there was make sure that they had the ability to learn and grow."

Herman nods, "Between that outlook on obedience and the...limited aggression that we had. We sucked big ones. Not that her view on obedience was really wrong. But... that is a very much a top down look at things. From a bottom up look, that means. When plans go wrong in combat, which they will, always, the soldier that she wanted would look up the chain of command for new orders when an opening to attack, that was not in the orders, would appear."

His voice hardens, "Which takes time for the new orders to process through the chain...so...by the time the new orders arrive the opening, the opportunity that was there would have vanished and the new orders would causes problems. Whereas an aggressive soldier would attack first, to win, and not wasting time waiting for new orders."

Joan interrupts. "Which is how we lost Gadian to the flamethrower at Kolubara in 1915. You can not blame Mother for the lost of Zalog, to another flamethrower at Lutsk in 1916. That was Alexander being too smart."

Herman nods, "Yeah. But, what it meant to Admiral Hall, is that the platoon he received was not what he expected. We were...weaker than he wanted. AND...our initiative was lacking. Not to mention Eric!" he finishes with a snort of laughter.

Joan laughs, "Eric was not and is not a soldier! Making him a lieutenant did not change the fact the his view on raw aggression is almost as bad as mother's." She shakes her head. "But, he was more helpful than not."

A look at the camera, "Admiral Hall also agreed with mother in her request to keep our...powers and existence secret, which caused all sorts of problems."

Herman nods. "To continue...Admiral Hall, Mother and us" pointing at himself, "did not really appreciate how bad our lack of aggression would be until we were in combat."

He shakes his head, "If we were a normal platoon, as part of a normal battalion we would have good, if not excellent soldiers. But as an independent special op platoon, that lack of... initiative was a bad problem."

Joan says in a helpful tone, "as it was...we spent WWI as, pretty much, a normal platoon of soldiers. Not the war changing unit that Admiral Hall wanted. Our only real combat advantage over people was our...the difficulty in destroying us."

"Not quite, White Queen," Herman inserts, "Admiral Hall keep moving us around, clandestinely, trying to find something, somewhere where our potential would come through. A normal platoon did not move around like we did."

She nods accepting his explanation, "Plus the time spent just sitting around for training or other reasons."

Another bark of laughter from Herman, "Training! Between trying to keep us a secret, and finding an instructor that could train us! Months... just months sitting around doing basic training for trench warfare... with Eric, who had no experience reading from a manual and us trying to get things right." He shakes his head.

"You trained with normal people, or fought beside them?" Liam asks.

Herman and Joan both nod yes, she says,"Between the badly fitting clothes, bandages covering war wounds and, of course, mud, we could move around... pretty much as normal people."

Herman grins, "Although, you try to explain to your buddies that you are not going to visit a brothel." Snort.

"How much money did you win drinking people under the table?" Joan responds, her eyes rolling.

"Hey! I gave it back. Well...most of it." Herman replies, defensively.

Liam asks, "What do you need money for? I do not think that you need food or except for cold, much use for shelter."

Herman replies, "Our senses are human senses, basically. There are pleasurable sensations. The taste of certain foods and drinks. You do NOT get between of Olaf and his mimosa."

"The Joy of Art." Joan interrupts. "Books for learning. And, like our Mother, various charities."

"Money for tickets to music events. Sporting, too." Herman says. "And to blend in, we do eat food. Blah...throwing it up afterward is always a mess."

Liam nods. "I see." a look down, "what if I can ask about your" another look down to make sure he is asking the question properly, "table of organization."

Joan nods. "One platoon of thirty-two. Four eight man squads. Four privates, are Pawns, like him," She grabs Herman's shoulder. "Three riflemen and a grenadier,"

Herman pulls a ice-ball from inside him, "Grenadier here," he interrupts and replaces the ball.

A glance at Herman and she continues, "When we are using, as we normally do, non-magical weapons. A corporal, the Rook, has the squad machine gun. the NCO, is the Knight. The squad...well, in modern equipment, commo and medic is the Bishop. And as the leader, either a King or a Queen."

A pause. "Now, we operate as independent squads, if not as individuals or separate fire teams. During WWI we operated as a complete platoon, with Eric as our lieutenant. Right now...we are spread across... Four continents."

"Magic?" Liam asks. "What type of magic?"

Elsa replies, "As my power grew, I began to equip them with magical items. At first temporary one use items, then as my knowledge grew more longer lasting items."

She nods to Joan, "It is their choice about what to reveal."

Liam looks at her. "Joan... or should I call you Queen Joan?"

"Joan is fine. Elizabeth, goes by the title, Queen Elizabeth. As far as magic goes... Given" She nods to Queen Elsa. "Mother's..."

"Lack of aggressiveness?" Elsa interrupts, smiling.

"Thank you, Mother. But, as I was saying, given that. Most of them are defensive in nature." A laugh. "The Knights magic sword, for example: as an offensive weapon is much weaker than a normal assault rifle."

Liam looks at Herman's sword and points at it.

Herman pulls the blade. Other than a slightly brownish tinge in the ice, it looks like a normal Roman short sword. "Other being harder to break than common stainless steel, and it stays sharp, there is nothing special with the blade. HAH! It will melt before I do, that is how weak it is." He puts it back. He pats his shield. "basically the same here. It does have a better defense against fire...but it is easier to break, trade-offs, you know."

"I think we will keep some secrets, though." Joan smiles at the camera. "Surprises are good things."

"The way you are describing things. The...ah. Admiral Hall? Did not like this. Did he ask you to fix things?" Liam asks Elsa.

She nods. A smile, a tap of her tablet and Frigga appears over the tablet. "I offered him Frigga's help." She nods to her.

Frigga begins to speak, "Admiral Hall wasn't sure what to do with me. That is until I helped him by breaking one of the German Navy's radio codes." Her lips twitch. "Like mother, I stayed in the background, but I was the one that broke the German codes during WWI."

Liam frowns, "I thought that was WWII. Ultra? Something like that."

Frigga nods. "You are correct, Mr. Black. The surviving members of the team from WWI built that team."

She smiles. "I was the one that broke the code that allowed Director Hall to present the Zimmerman telegram to the US."

Her smiles grows, "So you might say that I won WWI."

(note: for the true story search for Room 40 during WWI)

Silence.

"Any questions, Mr Black?" Frigga asks.

His mouth opens and closes. He shakes his head.

"Queen Elsa." She nods to her and vanishes.

Elsa smiles at Liam, pauses and begins to speak, "During the war, I worked with the Red Cross, mainly. With my problems with the 'echoes' I really did not want to stress myself." She hugs Herman and Joan again. "They had adventures. Later, ask them about those adventures."

A separate hug for Herman. "He is a rather good storyteller. Which is one of the reasons I asked him to help me today."

Queen Elsa sits back down on her throne. "Between my lingering depression and the age of my identity, Elsa Bjorgman was 57 in 1917, I decided that when the war ended I would change identities. At the time, I had no plan. I just knew I would do it. So... I began to shift money, objects into other identities."

She shakes her head. "As a senior member of the Red Cross, I was not at an active battle during the war. The aftermath of battles, yes."

She closes her eyes, "Gods... Verdun, a wasteland inhabited by ghosts, hundreds of thousands of them. Ypres... I do not want to think about the numbers of times I had to visit that carnal house. Isonzo... so many wasted men."

Liam and Richard look at each other.

"She saw the aftermath. I was there. Hell visited Earth and stayed for 4 years." He says in a very cold tone.

Elsa nods. "As the war was winding down in October 1918, my new identity began to fall into my hands. I will get to her in a few minutes. I had to remain Elsa Bjorgman and try using the ghosts of my former power to influence the post war treaties."

A shake of her head as he looks at Herman, "You were there. Do you want to tell them about my attempt at as battle field commander?"

Herman laughs, nods, and looks at Liam, "She stayed off battlefields all during the official war. Only to try during the Allied North Russia Campaign, which was not an official war."

Elsa tries to smile, but fails, "Leftover guilt about Lenin and my concern about what was happening in Russia."

"Fighting a winter war north of St Petersburg and south of Murmansk. American and British soldiers that were handcuffed by bad and confusing orders. Communist soldiers attacking a waves through the snow. Absolute mess." Herman explains.

He points at Elsa. "And here she comes in, dragging us with her. Trying to get them to talk to one another." He shakes his head. "Did. Not. work."

Elsa rubs her left shoulder. "Yes. I found that out when a sniper shot me."

"Shot?" Liam asks. "But earlier?" He points to Herman's pistol.

She nods. "Oh. Not life threatening... A clean in and out wound. I had to have my arm immobilized for few weeks." She sighs. "It even helped me during the Paris Peace Conference. It helped gather sympathy for me."

A look at Herman, than she turns at Liam. "That was over a hundred years ago, Liam. My powers and skills using them have increased."

Liam nods.

She resumes, with a cheerless look and tone, "The Paris Peace Conference... I watched them write treaties that would guarantee a new war. I told them, in public and in private, that those treaties meant the Europe would be engulfed in war by 1939. I TOLD them that." She finishes with a grim whisper.

A hollow painful laugh, as she says, "And in private...Clemenceau and Lloyd George agreed with me. Their day-to-day goals were more important to them than what would happen in 20 years. Clemenceau had to wave German's bleeding heart in front of the voters of France. Lloyd George had to show the voters of Britain that he'd won the war by absorbing most of the Ottoman Empire into the British Empire."

She shakes her head, "I did not really disagreed with them. It just... could have been done... in a gentler, a better way. Not in a way that guaranteed that a German politician would be able to easily bring about a new war. Not in a way that guaranteed chaos across a million square miles of earth. But...I could not convince them otherwise."

She sighs, "As a bone they allowed me to edit the draft for the League of Nations. But... They would not let me strengthen it. When I finished that... I left."

She looks at Liam, raises her eyebrow.

"That must have been...devastating."

She nods. "It was. By 1920 and my assumption of a new identity... I just wanted to escape the ruins of the Europe that I loved so much."

"New identity?" Liam asks.

"Are you ready for that break?" She asks. "Because once I start that new life, I will not answer questions about this one." She states.

He nods, yes. Then stops, and asks. "What about Johanna, your maid? Or Cogsworth?"

Elsa nods. "Yes. They married in 1903." A pause, then in a dull tone, " She had more courage than I did. Johanna still felt that she could do something. So. I used the last of my power to make sure that she was given a post at the League of Nations and I left her and Cogsworth the bulk of my public fortune as Elsa Anna Bjorgman committed suicide, depressed and sick of the War and it's aftereffects."

"Johanna eventually died in 1927, before the world started to go to hell. Cogsworth died soon afterwards of a broken heart." She finishes in a very somber tone.

Elsa closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and lets it out…

Her hairstyle changes into a simple braid down her back. Her faces changes...The bones around her eyes change...grow larger. Her skin tans, slightly. Her ice dress changes into a simple, if well made, dress.

"After over a century as Royalty. I became a commoner. Still...somewhat wealthy, maybe. The owner of a small import/export business and three ships."

She coughs into her hand. "The business, due to the war, was on the edge of bankruptcy and all three ships needed massive overhauls, if not total replacements."

A smile, "A challenge. Could I build from something so...limited."

A grief-filled sigh, "The business used to belong to a... well, a friend. But he died of lung cancer. His grandson died of the Spanish Flu in 1919, and his young wife...after almost dying of Spanish Flu also, and spending months recovering in my hospital in Arendelle, she left that sickroom on June 16, 1920."

A pause.

Liam and Richard are waiting…

A smile.

"Astrid Elsa Oaken, call me Elsa, please. The owner of Oaken Trading began her new life."

end chapter

* * *

Another scene of the world where Evil won.

A hospital? No. A hospital is a place of healing. This is not a place of healing.

Doctors, no. Medical techs examine new-born human babies.

They sort out the ones with non-beneficial birth defects. They will be dinner for the powerful slaves of the GOD-Emperor.

Ones with beneficial birth defects shall live. They might, perhaps, even, be given back to their birth mothers. But...not likely. Motherly love is bad. Only mothers that promise to hurt their babies will be given them to raise.

Ones without any flaws... Are saved. They will go to Special Magics. They might live. It is possible. If they ever leave, however, they are NOT human anymore.

* * *

A factory. Maybe.

The devices...might be machines. But there are differences. The moving metal parts are fused, somehow, with wood and flesh.

Beside a non working one of them stands a human with a knife. He is chanting a magical spell, a sorcerer.

In front of him, on a medical gurney, is another person. He looks happy. He smiles as the first human, the magic user, stabs him in the chest and he is still smiling as he dies.

Was he drugged, maybe? Maybe, he was under a mind control spell. Perhaps he wished to die…

Something... a ghost of vapor, rises from the dead person's chest. His soul.

The spell captures it. Changes it. BURNS it. Destroys it, forever.

The energy enters the device. IT starts to run.

Another room in the... factory.

Wooden sticks, staffs, and poles of various sizes and diameters line the walls. The smallest stick as about 3 inches long. The tallest looks like the trunk from a young redwood.

A stack of many small sticks is on a movable table. Next to it is another gurney and another human is on it. The conjurer is chanting and his knife falls.

The energy of the man's soul splits up and enters the sticks. They glow slightly.

Outside.

On a moveable table is a six-foot long glowing staff. The staff is pointed at a two inch thick slab of metal.

A man touches one end of the stick and does something…

A beam of light?... leaves the staff. It hits the metal slab and burns through it and then it hits the concrete wall behind the slab. Six inches of steel reinforced concrete vanishes.

The staff has passed its quality control test and it is ready for installation into a weapon of war.

MANY magical weapons created by a mix of science and magic.

* * *

A large field... square miles of war damaged terrain.

Weapons of war are practicing.

Flying feathered Dragons, ranging in size from just bigger than a horse to up 120 feet long, are flying around. People? are riding them. They are diving. They are dropping things. Things that explode when they hit the ground. Staffs, like the one being tested, fire from the backs of the dragons. They lance the ground with energy...Blowing holes into the ground. The Dragons breathe fire as they strafe the ground.

Dinosaur-like monsters rumble on the field. They look like triceratops. BUT. You can see the feathers where heavy armor does not cover them. They are larger than the ones on Earth. The largest are close to 60 feet long, not the 30 feet on earth. Up to 20 feet high, not the 10 feet on earth. On their backs is a glowing pole, the size of a telephones pole on earth.

It's beam of energy blows hills apart.

Feathered six-foot tall, twelve feet long Velociraptor-like dinosaurs work together. On their heads, an unholy mix of magic and technology. A humanoid looks at them. In his hands is a tablet? As he moves something on it, the Velociraptors move according to it.

Once... They knew how to make fire. Once...they had a language... poetry, even. Their sages debated the meaning of life. Once...they had human-level intelligence. Once...They were the apex predator on their world.

Then their world lost a war. NOW...they are mind controlled dogs of war.

The training of an army continues.

End scene.

* * *

For those of you who wonder.

You have not seen the artillery. (next scene will highlight, that.)

Mind control spells that cause mass friendly fire accidents are wonderful things.

Since the God-Emperor's armies use communication gear and other equipment that are magic based, using spells that cause EMP-like problems are good things. It's hard to run a modern tech army when the radios transmit hash and your computers do not work.

There are, of course, other things, as well.

Thank you for reading

jeff shelton


	10. Chapter 9 Astrid Elsa Oaken chapter 1

Astrid Elsa Oaken. chapter 1

Thank you to ptahaegyptus2 for your support and Beta.

Note: Due to a more intense discussion of magic, there will be more _behind the scenes, thoughts from Elsa and others in this_, and future chapters.

* * *

"Oaken Trading? The company that Fractal?" Richard says in surprise.

Elsa nods. "Yes. In later years, I had my new company buy my old company."

She smiles and looks at the camera. "The history of Oaken Trading as given in the history books is incomplete, so. But first, that break we mentioned earlier? Liam?"

Liam nods, "Yes. I've got too many people yelling in my ear. I've got to put out some fires."

Elsa says, "And, it seems, so do I. 15 minutes, then? I will leave this room for your use."

Liam replies, "Thank you."

A tap of her finger on her throne.

The Ice Throne raises up as a pillar slides up and through a hole that appears in the roof of the room. The icy chandelier moves aside to give her room.

Herman and Joan leave the room through the door.

Liam and Richard are alone in the room.

"We are sooo..."

Richard turns off the camera.

* * *

15 minutes later.

Elsa's throne is back in the room, with her seated on it. Herman is to her left, like he was in the beginning.

"Ready, Liam?" She asks.

He nods and pats his laptop. "Ready."

"I will resume the story of Oaken Trading, then, I will answer questions." Elsa says in a forceful tone.

Liam grimaces.

Elsa starts her tale of this life, "Odd Oaken was a friend of Anna's. A large and eccentric person, mind you, but honest and helpful to Anna during 1837 and later." An ice sculpture of Oaken appears: he is smiling, like he always did.

"One of his sons, Viggo, was more adventurous and after traveling the world as a sailor on several of the Ice ships that visited Arendelle, came to Queen Elsa in 1865 for a loan. He wanted to expand his father's Wandering Oaken's Trading Post into an import/export business with a shipping line."

Elsa shrugs as she says, "He was, by all accounts, a good man and a good ship captain. I gave him the loan and he was successful."

A smile, "By 1914 he was old, but still vigorous, with an adult son to help, who was planning to take over in time, and a promising grandson. Oaken Trading had 5 modern ships and was making good money hauling iron from northern Norway to Germany."

A sigh, "Then the war. Britain did not like iron being shipped to Germany. Everyone scattered mines in the North Sea and along the coast. By late 1918 things had changed. Mines sunk two of his ships. He lost his son on one of them."

She shakes her head, "The only good news: His grandson, on leave from the army in 1917, married a farmer's daughter, Astrid. But, he told his grandfather that after the war, he was going to sell Oaken's ships and use that money to start an automobile factory."

"Which, in late 1918, is where I came in. Viggo wanted my advice. His health was beginning to fail. Years of smoking were catching up with him. What should he do? I came up with a plan for him. But it had to wait until the end of the war."

She sighs, again, "While on the way to the mess in Russia, I stopped and explained everything to Viggo. He approved."

She gestures to herself. "I met Astrid Oaken and everyone remarked how close we looked." A magical illusion of Astrid Oaken appears, she looks like Elsa, just a different hair color.

A pause. "By this time, I was, like during the later years as Queen Elsa, wearing makeup to appear older, so the differences in our appearances were greater than they appear, now."

A smile and a laugh, "It seems that story I told about my father having an affair was correct: she was related to me. The only noticeable difference was hair color, hers was reddish-blond, not my platinum."

Elsa shakes her head. "That caused problems, at first, with this identity." She pats her braid. "My hair...rejects dyes. Oh, It will stick for a few hours, but, sooner or later the dye just slides off and my hair returns to its natural color. But talking about Astrid dyeing her hair platinum, to look like the famous Queen Elsa in her family history, was enough for this identity."

A sad sigh, "Then things took a turn for the worse. I went to Russia and was out of action when the army released Viggo during that time. He found out that the meeting with me would be delayed. He and Astrid, then, took a delayed honeymoon to fill the time until I could show up and finalize the deal."

She shakes her head, "He died of the Spanish Flu. Astrid did as well. But they were in Arendelle when they died and I heard about it in time to hold the paperwork. All I had to do was change the middle name. In the new paperwork, Astrid, instead, just went into a coma and had complications."

"I managed to get to Viggo before he died and he approved of my plan to assume Astrid's life. He died a week later." She looks at Liam. "After that it was just a matter of waiting until when I would decide to stop Elsa Anna Bjorgman's life."

"Since she was from a local farm family, who knew of me as Queen Elsa, explaining things to them was an easy talk. Since she had not been around Viggo employees much, explaining it to them was simple. Except for the problems with hair color, the switch to this identity was much easier than when I became Elsa Bjorgman."

She looks at Liam, who is about to burst wanting to ask questions. A small shake of her head.

"Still, Astrid was in a world of trouble. She was a young woman, with no experience. Now, in charge of a failing business. Which due to war causalities and Viggo's bad health last few years, now had a very poor set of employees on which to rebuild from."

"A challenge, like I said. And one that I should go into detail about." A smile at Liam, whose face is now a shade of purple.

"But, I will decline. The history books have that part of my life in reasonably good detail." She smiles, "Go ahead, Liam. Ask."

He let's out a huge sigh. Then grins. "I should get used to your little jokes."

Elsa grins. "Humor is good. The more of it there is, the better."

Liam clears his throat, "I have been ordered to ask about Hitler."

Elsa shakes her head, no. "When I get to 1936, I will mention him. I will mention him in 1939, as well. How much I mention him during the war years will depend on how I will be feeling at time. Until then, I will decline to answer those questions."

Liam nods, "That's what I told them, but..."

Elsa nods, understanding his situation.

"I have been ordered to ask you about your future plans."

"And, in the future, I will answer those questions."

A snort, "Nice deflection."

A smile. "Continue."

"I have been ordered to ask you about that quote upcoming storm unquote you mentioned."

The ice turns yellow, momentarily, then it returns to normal.

She grimaces, "I would like to answer that question, but I cannot do so. In the future, in a few weeks to a few years something, a war or perhaps a natural disaster, will occur and it will kill millions. Nothing else could break through my defenses and leave me screaming from the nightly nightmares that have occurred during the last few years." She finishes in a very blunt tone.

Liam pales, "Millions?"

"Many millions." Elsa states, "I feel worse than I felt before WWII. I am more powerful, more knowledgeable than I was then. I am also more sensitive. So I should, logically, feel worse even if there are fewer deaths, as I would feel each death more strongly than I felt them in 1939. But... applying logic to magic is wrong. So, I do not trust that reasoning."

Liam nods, accepting that explanation. "I have been ordered to ask if this morning's show was a total effort on your part."

She shakes her head no, "Given time, Joan could have done all that, except for the creation of the whale."

Herman laughs. "Time? You know how long it would take?"

Elsa smiles, "Of course." A point to the camera, "They don't, though. And I think a little confusion here would be a good thing. If they are going to ask stupid questions, we should, give them some very confusing answers."

"OOKK," Herman nods. "A little confusion." He rubs his jaw, "Everything but the ship, iceberg, and tower would take about as long as you did. Maybe less time. You were gentle with people. Joan isn't as gentle.."

A pause as he considers, "Creating that iceberg... That I think I will not answer. The Tower...depends. Creating basic shelter for everyone, about as fast as you. Creating a Tower, in all its detail? That is days of work. Even then, there are parts of this Tower that only Eric could duplicate."

Liam licks his lips, "Just to make sure, this morning was not a challenge?"

Elsa shakes her head no. "Not really. The only thing that might have been challenging was using near absolute zero temperatures against guns without hurting the people who were holding them. And that is just detail and safety work, creating two opposing energy fields within inches of each other, not a power challenge. The small icy tornadoes that were holding people are things I could create long, long ago."

Liam is about to ask another question, when Elsa holds up her hand. "Liam, I think this will be faster. Hand me the laptop and I will see if there is anything I will answer. Any new question, that is. I have a feeling that most of your questions are about things that I have already answered."

Liam, glumly, nods. "Yes. I told them that. But, they demanded."

Elsa nods. "I understand. Please." She holds out her hand.

Liam holds out the laptop.

Herman moves, takes the laptop and gives it to Elsa.

She looks, "No. No. Already answered. Ditto. No. What?" A pause, "Frigga?"

Frigga's head appears next to her. "Yes, Queen Elsa."

"Can you edit this mess?" She holds up the laptop. "Send them the video clips of the answers they have already seen. Block the stupidity. And find out which gutter that idiot, who asked that question about Anna and I, slimed out of."

Frigga acknowledges her mother, "Of course, Queen Elsa. I have been monitoring Mr. Black's feed. Do anything to the slime? I already have his id."

Elsa shakes her head. "No, sticks and stones, just watch him. It will be interesting to see how much slime he attracts."

She looks at the laptop and pages through it. "Good. Much better. There is nothing here that can not wait." She hands the laptop to Herman. Then she pauses, still holding the laptop.

She looks at Liam, "I am sorry. I should have asked permission, first. Do you want me to reverse Frigga's actions?"

Liam and Richard laugh. "No. Just, I suppose the video will explain things."

"It should." Elsa replies. "I just find myself getting more and more casual about fixing things, especially trivial things. I really should have asked before I did anything to your laptop." She hands the laptop to Herman, who returns it to Liam.

"Now, to resume." She smiles, "And I will not go into detail about how Oaken Trading turned around and expanded."

"Whew." Liam wipes his brow, jokingly.

A quick smile.

She sighs, "Before I begin, I should give... an overview of the time I spent as Astrid Elsa Oaken. Unlike with my life as Queen Elsa or as Elsa Bjorgman, this life had no personal lifetime goal. Oh, I suppose from the outside, the improvements and growth of Oaken was a lifetime career, but, except for the occasional emergency, building Oaken wasn't difficult. Time consuming, yes. Detail oriented, yes. Difficult, no. Just business, nothing personal."

"In 1930, when I finally was able to travel to Antarctica, I began my love affair with her." She smiles and gestures to the open doorway. "Since then I have visited regularly. My desire to protect her began the moment I first laid eyes on her. But, it was not until late in this life that my goal to protect her became my priority."

"So, during this lifetime, I drifted from place to place, from goal to goal. Until late in this life, when my environmental goals became more and more focused."

Liam nods. "Sounds, confusing."

She grimaces, "Yes, at times. Oh, at first, like when I left Arendelle, it was simple. I was running from the ruins of Europe. I did have a goal in mind though, not just running like I did at the end of my life as Queen Elsa. But first."

She says in a firm tone, "During the reorganization of Oaken Trading, I did repair the three ships. One of them, I had basically rebuilt. Not for safety reasons, but I was planning to Captain that ship personally and wanted some, I suppose you could call them secret chambers, for my children and other potential things."

"That ship, I renamed Anna." An ice sculpture of a, now, very small and antiquated freighter, appears. In 1899 when it came off the builders ramp, it was a main-line freighter.

"Basically, up to WWII, I spent more time on her than I did anywhere else. She was a 7,000 ton, single screw steamer. Slow, of course, just 12 knots out of the repair yards, as time passed even that speed dropped. But, a good solid ship." There is pride in her voice, she was on that ship for years.

A thoughtful look and then a happy grin, "Before my parents died in a shipwreck, daydreaming about being a ship Captain was a favorite of mine. The stories I read about… Sailing around the Horn. Other stories. " A sigh, "It was… interesting to see how reality was different from my childhood fantasies."

"Souls... are wondrous things. Complex and strange. And... it is possible for anything to have a soul." She says in a soft tone, as she remembers her ship.

Richard and Liam share a glance. Both agree not to disturb her thoughts.

A lull, then she continues, "Given the secret holds, when I left Europe in December 1921, I was able to bring Olaf with me. I offered a place for Marshmallow, but he decided to stay at Arendelle."

She looks at Herman. "Since I did not see a reason to take them, I left Herman and the others in Arendelle with Eric."

She looks at Liam. "Since they did not have a lot of power, Eric had to stay behind to help them."

Herman nods. "Our heat protection spells were still weak and we needed Eric to replenish our ice."

"I did take Ragnhild, Asa and Frigga with me. Before WWI, I probably would have taken Njord, or when I stopped in the US, Richard, but with the new world-wide radio communication, plus telegraph, they stayed home. Christina stayed home continuing her and Frigga's scientific experiments."

She looks at Liam, "I am not going to detail all of our stops as we circled the world several times. Just the ones that were most interesting. Nor I am going to go into all the problems that I, as a young female ship Captain had, especially in those first years. The official history of Oaken Trading covers those incidents...in reasonable, if incomplete, detail."

Another wipe of his forehead from Liam.

"The first stop outside Europe was Greenland. Finally." Elsa states, "I had previous plans to visit there, but had to cancel each time."

The snowflakes that on her throne begin to dance, more and more wildly.

She smiles greatly. "The joy on the faces of my children when we reached the top of the ice sheet...is still one of my favorite memories. Gods, that snowball fight! Me and Olaf vs Ragnhild, Asa and Frigga. Wonderful!" A very happy tone and happier look is on her face.

The ice clears, sharpens…

Liam and Richard can feel the joy.

Her smile grows, threatening to split her face. "Bermuda. Olaf, finally, visiting a tropical beach!"

Herman laughs. "He tells that story whenever you give him half a chance!"

"What am I missing?" Liam asks, "I could understand about Greenland, but Bermuda?"

Elsa and Herman look at each other, then Elsa says, "I really should let Olaf answer that, Liam. I will simply say that since Olaf was born, he has had a strong desire to visit a tropical beach."

A pause. "And, yes, I realize that Bermuda is subtropical not a fully tropical beach, but to us," She points to herself and Herman, "and Olaf, it counted."

Liam nods. "I do have another question?"

"Go ahead, I was just about to pause for them," Elsa answers.

"I can understand Ragnhild and Asa, but why Frigga? She is your technological person, right? Traveling all the time would not help her."

Elsa nods. "Ah. That gets into what I was about to mention."

Liam nods, understanding.

"When I left Europe this time, as I said, I had a plan. And that plan was not build Oaken Trading." She says in a serious tone. "My mental condition, my Soul, if you will, needed help. Pabbie's spell to wall off the echoes of the future was slowly losing it's effectiveness. I had to find a new spell. Something."

Liam nods, "I can see that, but Frigga?"

"She is also my helper on the magic side as well. I was going to need her help."

His eyes widen and he nods. "I had forgotten that detail."

Elsa nods. "Yes." She grimaces, "You must understand, when I was Queen Elsa, I had time, not a lot, but time, to experiment and explore mine and others magics. During my lifetime as Elsa Bjorgman, though, I spent very little time using, much less exploring, my powers."

"And fixing my soul would require me to learn more about my powers." Elsa says, earnestly, "During these long and slow journeys on Anna, I had time to explore things."

A bark of laughter. "Frigga, finally, had me to experiment on! Gods... The things she had me do. Just to see if I could or could not do it."

"It was during these years as I circled the world hunting for the magic to help me that I became... something more than an instinctive magic user, who knew just a handful of minor spells." She grins, "Frigga had collected a great deal of magical information which we could finally go through, organize, and learn."

A pause, "In later years, Frigga and I used this data to help us to develop various theories about how magic works and how to mix different magic systems together. Still… Trying to apply the scientific method strictly to magic was… incorrect. Magic and Logic do not mix well."

Liam and Richard go pale. "That must have been some journey." Liam says in a low voice.

Elsa nods, "It was." She sighs, "Unfortunately, none of the information we had could solve my problem. Oh, there was hints in some of the negative, black magic information. But I refused to look at them."

She pauses, thinking, and then nods. "This was when we stumbled on one of the secrets of my powers."

"Yes," Liam perks up, excited.

She smiles, mysteriously, "I am only mentioning this, because it will, and I repeat will, cause confusion in the people watching this interview."

Liam and Richard both nod.

"Magic is imagination, which is why it doesn't mix well with Logic and resists systematization. If you can imagine something and you have the skills and power, you can do it. That is about as basic a law of magic that there is." She says in a serious tone.

She tightens her lips, "The following explanation will be without any scientific gloss. I have to talk about pure magic theory and science does not apply."

She says in a steady tone, "With me, if I can somehow find a way to imagine a Frozen or freezing symbolism, casting any spell becomes a lot easier."

Liam states, "I do not understand."

Elsa thinks for a moment, "There are some mathematical explanations that spring to mind instantly. My first thought would be to use a slide rule." A flick of her hand and an icy slide-rule appears. A grin, "but, I think that would confuse people even more.'

Liam and Richard chuckle.

"Still, perhaps the most common example would be with computer languages. Some problems are easier to solve in one language and then translated into another. However."

A grin appears, as she says, "I learned it about it this way. Frigga noticed how easily I was remembering things. I always had a remarkable memory, I just considered that natural and did not think about it. But, Frigga decided to find out more."

"After a lot of... detail work, she finally could make me understand it. I had done this from childhood, but did not know it. I quote freeze unquote information in my memories. I can then quote unfreeze unquote the information and use it. Giving me in practice a photographic memory."

"That's fucking twisted!" Richard exclaims.

Elsa nods. "You should have seen me, when she told me that. But it works. If I can somehow use Frozen or freeze or something like that when I use a pure magical spell, it just flows out of me effortlessly and with my full power behind it."

A pause, "If I can not use that symbolism, the spell becomes harder to work and with a much more limited power level. An example: there would be those mind healing spells I mentioned earlier. Using them, is generally, much harder than creating ice."

"Generally?" Liam asks.

"There are some mind healing spells that preserve the mind. To 'freeze' the mind as it was. Those spells are easy. But other spells are harder."

Liam says in a tone of wonder. "Jesus. Anything?"

"As long as I can find the right Frozen symbolism, anything is possible." She says, calmly and with great confidence.

She smiles at a thought and her mouth opens and closes like she is saying something, but nothing comes out. Well… Not quite. A snowflake grows in front of her mouth. When she finishes 'talking' she plucks the snowflake from in front of her mouth.

"Here Liam, crush this." She flips him the snowflake.

Liam looks confused but catches the snowflake and crushes it.

From the crushed ice, Elsa's voice is heard, "Like that old joke about sound freezing during a hard winter."

Elsa and Herman share a laugh.

Richard and Liam also give a snark of laughter.

Elsa looks at Liam, "Shall I confuse you some more?"

He laughs, "No. Although, I'm sure that other people will feel differently."

She nods. "Then, to continue, when I left Europe, I did have a place I wanted to go. Japan. I needed to visit my daughter Mizuki. And I hoped that her friends from Japanese mythology might have some magic that would help me."

"It took longer than I expected to get there." She shrugs, "That detail work with Oaken Trading kept interfering. The problems of a young female ship Captain, basically. Especially making that long voyage across the Pacific. Finding a reason to make that journey, just took time."

_ Author's note: I used to write Inu-yasha fanfiction. So, the following characters are from that anime/manga._

"Still in January 1923, I arrived in Japan." A deep sigh. A smile, "Finally. I was able to have time for Mizuki."

Her smiles grows, "I met her special friend, only to find out that they were waiting on me, so they could ask my permission to marry."

An ice sculpture of Mizuki and Genji appear. They are dressed in very traditional Japanese clothing. Genji looks like a red-haired human, but he has a bushy tail. Mizuki looks like a Japanese woman wearing heavy white makeup.

She shakes her head. "Genji was a Kitsune. A Japanese mythical creature similar to a fox, a shape-shifter. They are generally mischievous, but there are exceptions. I liked him and approved of the marriage. It was a happy time visiting them."

She sighs, "Genji's father Shippo is an old and wise person. But, his spells are illusion-based. While useful, especially when I combined them with similar spells from Pabbie, they were not what I needed."

"He did have connections, however. And spells similar to what I wanted were known, but there were... translation problems." She grimaces, "that's not really correct, but it will do for now. They did, however, point me in the right direction. What I needed was somewhere in the Himalayas. Off I went."

She sighs, but before she can speak, Liam interrupts. "I'm sorry, but I do have a question."

She nods, "ask."

"There are other magical beings, like yourself?"

She answers, "Yes. But out of respect for them and their situations, any answer I give will be full of ifs, ands, and buts."

"So, no details?"

She nods, yes. "No matter what happens, after this there will be a new and intense hunt for magic, and magic users. I will not give away any of their secrets."

Liam nods, understanding.

Queen Elsa sighs, "I had met some… some magical friends and acquaintances earlier in my life. However, it was at this time that I began to see how much magic there was in this world. My experience was with the magic in Europe and it had many years ago been driven underground."

"I made more friends, and sadly a few enemies, during this journey. They introduced me to others and to the informal rules that were in place. Just making such a public show of powers is against those rules. For that reason, and others, I am very careful in what I say, Liam." She nods at him

He nods back, understanding her viewpoint.

Another sigh, "They all have adapted to this modern world in their own ways. Some blending in like I did. Some vanishing into magical places. Some just...existing in their own way."

She pauses, "My understanding is that some have removed themselves even further from mankind in preparation for this day. Some are waiting to see what happens. If I succeed, I believe some will reveal themselves, peacefully."

She says in a dark tone, "Some, unfortunately, will use my presence to expose themselves in an attempt to use people, not help people."

"Preparation? They knew beforehand?" He asks, quickly.

She nods, "Some I warned before hand. Some have the ability to foresee the future."

"Could they be that storm you feel?" He asks, cautiously.

She shakes her head, no. "Oh, they might influence parts of the storm. The storm feels new, though, something I have not met before, or at best, met so briefly that I do not remember it."

"So, they are not dangerous." He states.

She laughs, "They, or least some of them, are very dangerous! And they will complicate things. Immensely. I just do not believe that they will be decisive."

"Do you have any idea how they will complicate things?" He asks slowly.

Elsa pauses, considering. "There are possible things that they can do. But... until they occur, I would prefer not to answer that question. I do not want to box them into a response. And, I do not want to play 20 questions here, Liam. Let's drop this line of questioning, please."

"OK." Liam nods. "Thank you. Please continue."

Elsa thinks, '_There are three, that I know of, that are more powerful than I am. Lif is the eldest and most powerful. But she has told me that she will be neutral. The Yellow Dragon of China. He, though, is asleep, and there is no way to know when he will awaken.'_

A mental shake. _'And, as I call him, Merlin. Who knows what his birth name is? I have traced his influence back to the rise of Assyria, who knows how old he is? I have lost track of him. Still... his historic pattern of behavior is to...fix chaos. He probably is grooming a new hero and is ready to help that hero to improve things. With luck, we can work together. But hopefully his plans will not hurt mine. A war between us...would be bad.'_

Elsa continues, her voice full of joy, "The Himalayas. Beautiful. Grand. Fascinating. And...mysterious. I haunted them for 6 months, never finding the answer I was looking for."

The Himalayas appear in an ice sculpture.

She sighs, "Given the time I was spending searching, I sent the Anna back to Europe for repairs. That allowed Olaf to return to Arendelle. Exploring places was fun. Having to hide was not. So he left the voyage then."

Another deep sigh, "Eventually, Frigga showed me other possible answers, and I left, to search elsewhere. I was very disappointed. I knew the answer was here. I just failed to find it." She finishes in despondent tone.

She smiles, though, as she continues, "I did take the time to travel to Europe to attend the first Winter Games." A smile. "Sonja Henie even at age 11. The potential there was great. A very enjoyable interlude. So, with a much better mood, I resumed my search."

"After the Games, I traveled to the Inuits, hoping that their magic, so similar to mine would work." She shakes her head. "Oh, helpful, it was. But not what I needed."

"Due to the details of expanding Oaken Trading, I spent most of the next couple of years going up and down the Pacific coast of the Americas, and via the Canal, the Caribbean. As I traveled, I explored various native American magics, hoping..." She sighs.

She says with a huge smile, "Finally, as I was trying to decipher Olmec magic, I met... A friend. I was given the correct directions in the Himalayas. And an introduction to the hidden valley that I needed to find."

Liam taps his laptop, attracting her attention.

A twitch of her lips, "Go ahead, Liam."

"That friend? One of those magical beings you mentioned earlier?"

Elsa nods, yes.

"Not going to say a thing?"

Elsa smiles, but does not say a thing.

He nods.

A pause.

Elsa resumes, "Arranging a quick trip for the Anna from Mexico to India was difficult, but the growing Oaken Trading company made that possible."

"Once there, to the Himalayas and I found the valley this time." A joyous smile appears. "I knew that I would be spending a great deal of time away from the Anna, so I had my executive officer command the Anna as a normal freighter until I could rejoin her."

"I spent most of 1927 in the Himalayas. Learning. Healing. Growing." She says, in a strong voice.

"You will not tell us details of your time there." Liam remarks, not really expecting an answer.

She nods, yes. "That is very private information."

"But, I will say this." A sigh, "I learned how to Freeze the echoes, giving me peace. Oh, at times the echoes will build up and I have to let them flow over me, like a glacier. But I can control when and how, so I can make sure that the side-effects are controllable and managed."

"That simple?" Liam asks. "Surely you and Frigga tried that?"

Elsa nods. "We did. Unfortunately, the mass of frozen echoes would overwhelm the spell and it would break down. So, it was helpful, but not the solution I was looking for. Only after the Valley was I able to use that spell properly."

She shakes her head. "I am greatly simplifying things. There were also spells to strengthen my soul, which I used when I started to add powers to my Icemen."

She smiles gently, "I did learn that the importance I placed on Love, Mercy, and Peace was correct. That knowledge has greatly helped me over the years."

A pause.

Seeing that she has stopped, Liam's eyebrows furrows as he thinks and then he asks, "Queen Elsa, I notice that you have not mentioned much about your children, other than Frigga, during this time period of, what, seven years?"

She nods. "Yes. I have neglected them in my desire to explain my magical healing." A twinkle in her eyes, as she looks at the camera, "And a wish to speed my story along."

"Herman, could you tell Liam, what you were doing during this time frame?"

Herman nods, steps forward and says, "We spent most of the inter-war years training and learning. The mistakes we made in WWI haunted us and we were going to get better. Oh, British Intelligence knew something of us, when Director Hall retired he kept our secret, but they did use us occasionally."

A laugh. "We even came close to Queen Elsa during her first trip to the Himalayas, we were in the Hindu Kush at the time. The British wanted to help the Afghan King to suppress a revolt in Khost and they needed deniable troops, so we were it."

He shakes his head. "Beautiful mountains. Great during winter. But I have spent far too much time in those mountains over the years, fighting."

"Ragnhild and Asa stayed with me, basically." Elsa says as Herman finishes, "Asa discovered that she loved the weapon-less hand to hand combat techniques of the far east. Karate. Jujitsu. Kung Fu. Other martial arts. Ragnhild helped me. She was more interested in the modern people we met, though her occasional vigilantism kept causing trouble. No major problems, but it was there."

"Anything else?" She asks.

A glance down, a raised eyebrow, pursed lips, "There is a question about your sex life?"

"Ahh." Elsa answers, "How I handled that during this lifetime?"

Liam nods.

She looks at the ceiling, thinking, and then says, "hmmmm. That becomes a more complex subject than it was before. During the time on the Anna, I had time to think. And, finally, truly consider how my very long life would affect me." She smiles, "Love in all its physical glory and spiritual wonder."

"How would I handle love when, sooner or later, any person I loved would die and I would live on? I used legends, myths and advice from some of my long-lived magical friends to learn from." She says in a thoughtful tone.

In a brisk tone she says, "The physical aspects of love, or rather lust as I like to consider it, I could solve like I did earlier with mistresses. They might be life-long or one-night stands, but they would solve the fact that a healthy and happy human body needs physical relationships... But was that right? And did that include spiritual Love?"

A grin, "The arguments that I had with Olaf over this subject are, within my family, legendary. I took the position that I should not love normal people since they would die. He took the position that a large part of Love is sharing, and to deny it was wrong."

A slow shake of her head, "He, like always, was correct. To deny Love is… is a horrible and unhealthy thing. A strong, healthy soul depends on Love. That is the heart of a soul." Her tone is one of being very sure of herself.

"Still… there were problems." She entwines her fingers of both hands. "With a true love… There is an equal." She changes the position of her fingers, so that just the fingertips are touching. "Without an equal… Things become harder."

A look at Liam, "Finding an equal becomes a problem when you are functionally immortal. Peers are rare, and being also long-lived, they normally have solved this problem, in their way, already."

He snorts, "Yeah, I can see that."

A smile glows on her face, "Luckily, my love of my family and my love, my compassion, for people can substitute for personal love. Still one of things that as I did as I wandered the globe that I looked for was potential peers."

A huge sigh, "Eventually, I did find… a solution, but there was and are problems with…" A shake of her head, "Let's simply say that I have a personal quest that I must finish before I can join with my True Love." A brush of her hand against her jaw.

Another sigh, a far off look. "But, before I can leave on that quest, I must grow… Not in power, as such, but in wisdom, to overcome the challenge that I will have to face.. And, since there is a strong possibility of my personal death, I must make sure about my legacy here on Earth." She waves to Herman and the open doorway.

Liam and Richard's look at each other. '_What could kill her?'_They are obviously thinking.

A sigh, "But, to answer your question in a more strict manner. As Astrid Oaken, I acted like many sailors have done throughout the ages. In each port, well, in selected ports, I would have special friends, a mistress, a lover. I always told them, upfront, that I was not looking for a normal life-long relationship, just something short-term. Sooner or later, I could find someone who I could love. Depending, of course, on your definition of love."

She purses her lips, "As time passed, I decided that behavior was wrong." She sighs, and a quick smile, "Liam, I have had time to experiment with all sorts of things. In future lives, I tried other ways to solve this problem."

A smile, "Until, of course, I found my true love. Since then, I have waited, planning and in the future, I will act. I will…"

Her eyes grow misty_. "I will love."_

Silence...

A shake of her body.

"To continue," Elsa begins, "I managed, just, barely to get the Winter Games of 1928. Sonja was beautiful. I even managed a few private skates with her." She smiles.

Her smiles, grows, gloriously. "And finally... I could plan and visit Antarctica."

The ice brightens. The atmosphere...becomes lighter?

Liam grows more interested.

"Lars Christensen, a competitor, but a friend and Hjalmer Riiser-larsen, who taught me to fly during WWI, and I planned an expedition to Antarctica. Several ones, actually. In January 1930, finally, Antarctica!" Her voice is full of excitement.

"I used the Anna as my part of the expedition. And this time, I brought all the family with me. Even Mizuki managed to show up." A huge smile. "For the first time, and, truthfully, one of the few times, we ALL have been together."

The air begins to glow gently, a soft pink light.

Olaf, Marshmallow, Eric and Frigga appear in holograms. Others in smaller screens, also, appear. Queen Elsa's family will be with her during this time of triumph for them.

Herman smiles and nods, confirming Elsa's statement. "Wonderful time." He says, "Some of the best months of all our lives, that first trip to Antarctica."

"The Grandeur. The Majesty. The Magnificence. Ahh. I can not describe the feelings."

Snow and ice begin to spiral around her. Faster and faster. Growing, changing...becoming more and more beautiful.

Indescribable. Love.

Frozen. Timeless...

"That was when Norway claimed close to 20% of Antarctica." She says with a smile.

"Queen Maude Land. Princess Astrid Coast. Princess Ragnhild Coast. Prince Olav Coast. Officially the names came from the then current King Haakon VII of Norway's family. But." She smiles. "I wanted to use Anna or Elsa, but he unwisely did not use those names.. So, I had to use Anna's middle names, one of mine and, of course Olaf's name."

She laughs.

Herman laughs.

Richard and Liam give a couple of laughs, themselves.

"I would have stayed here forever, but, life pulled my family and I back north." She sighs.

A sly smile appears. "But. Before I left Antarctica, I gave birth to more children, here. Carl and Martha to help Frigga and Njord, respectively. This is when Krol was born as I also, finally, filled the holes in my military Icemen. And...for the first time, I began to create more snowmen like Olaf."

She waves her hand at the open door. "Here they could be themselves and not have to hide, like Olaf and Marshmallow."

She pats the Seal above her. "This is also the time that I changed my personal seal to this symbolism. I had thought about it for years, being on Antarctica was the final step in that decision. Up until today only the family has seen it. In a couple of weeks, when I establish my palace at McMurdo, it will become the Seal of Elsa of Antarctica." A smile.

She looks at Liam and says softly, but firmly, "I will be more mysterious with information about my snowmen, Liam. Most of them are here in Antarctica, so they do not interact with people often."

Liam nods, understanding.

"When I left Antarctica that first time." She says, in a very painful tone. "I left Marshmallow and a group of snowmen and snowwomen here. Marshmallow was in command with orders just to explore, really. I did take Leik and Maximus back with me. Olaf and they had become very fast friends and I did not want to separate the three."

Herman shakes his head. "Olaf is a great guy. Very fun. Also...wise in his own way. Leik, who goes by Kilroy now, though, is a practical joker to the extreme. You always have to watch him. Maximus...just is Maximus. A great guy."

Elsa pauses, looking at Liam, in case he wants to ask something.

"Hmm." Liam thinks, "I don't really have questions about Antarctica. But, you've made sure to mention the Winter Games, twice now. Is there something, I'm not getting?"

"Ohh. I am sorry, Liam. My love of Winter sports is shining through. That dates back to the Nordic Games that occurred before the Olympics. And even before that, watching impromptu winter games as Queen of Arendelle. It has always been a pleasure of mine to watch people having fun in the winter." She smiles as she finishes that comment.

An illusion of various winter sports appear. Most of the images are of older times. The costumes and equipment are from the 1930's or earlier.

"Oh."

She continues in a sadder tone, "After the death of Elsa Bjorgman, I greatly reduced the amount of time I spent on my support of the social organizations I followed. And, given my death, my financial support of them obviously dropped as well. My support of Winter sports, first of the Nordic Games and later the Olympics, the Winter Games were and are something that I support."

She waves her hand, "Oh, the support is primarily financial. But, whenever possible I do spend more time. Like with Sonja, I helped her when I could. Other athletes as well." A smile, "primarily Norwegian, of course. But, I would help anyone that I noticed."

"Given all the time you've been alive, have you ever competed?" Liam asks.

Elsa shakes her head, no. "It would not be fair. My powers make me pretty much perfect on snow or ice. Although, after an event is over. Sometimes. There would be some private sessions." A very satisfied grin.

"One of my plans, sometime over the next few days, is to make an Ice Rink, here. You will understand when you see me on ice, skating."

The softly glowing light fades away.

"That make sense." Liam then shakes his head, "Nothing else is screaming at me to be asked."

Elsa nods, "After this, though, the worsening world conditions became harder and harder to ignore. Plus, I had completed the two personal goals that I wanted to do. Which left me at loose ends."

A despondent sigh, "This begins a very difficult time in my life." She brushes her hair back, trying to think. "I could see WWII coming. The Great Depression, the events in Japan, Germany and Italy all were pointing to new major war. While not exactly as I predicted in 1919, it was close enough."

A sad shiver through her body, "Unlike with Elsa Bjorgman, though, Astrid Oaken had, basically, no political power. And while, via my secret accounts, I was very wealthy, that wealth was in a massive number of small accounts. So, there was no way to use that wealth to try to stop the coming war."

"That must have been tough on you." Liam remarks. "Guilt?"

Elsa nods. "Yes. Now that I could protect myself from the echoes, I regretted, very much, the fact that I left Europe. Johanna did what she could, before she died. But." A sigh. "I could see no leverage I could use to delay, much less stop, the coming war."

"After, a great deal of discussion with my family, I decided to continue my pattern of looking for various magics in the world. Basically, it was a default position. I could find nothing to stop the war, but my feelings of guilt made retreating to Antarctica not appealing, either."

She perks up, "And I did find useful new magics and theories behind them. When I visited Australia, the Dreamtime concepts of the native Australians when combined with other magics: Egyptian magic, astral and mental bodies, plus my own experiences made the most useful...theory, Frigga and I developed during this time-frame."

She looks at Liam, "But, it is difficult to explain. And, while very useful, not really vital to this interview. So, I will just mention it."

Herman thinks as Elsa continues to speak, _'She just causally broached, and then dismissed, one of her most powerful advantages. Channeling power through a human body, or even an Ice one, places limits on the amount of power that can flow through, without damaging, a body. By using those techniques, she can remove her soul from her body and the amount of force she can use, increases exponentially. Although that does leave her body very vulnerable and there are other dangers._'

"Like, during a trip to Africa, where I was first introduced to various local magics, that, now, are useful. But then I, sadly, ignored them." A pause, "Seeing the circle of life, though, in the Serengeti plain, is the date I use, of when I began my environmental concerns." A sigh.

"I began a habit of returning to Antarctica during this time period as well. Visiting her and Marshmallow in late 1934." Queens Elsa states in a satisfied voice.

"Then," Elsa says in an excited voice, "came the magical surprise that I thought would never happen. Mizuki and Genji had a child in March 1935."

A moving ice sculpture of a baby appears. She is white, very white, but not snow, with a bushy white tail.

"Gods. Playing with little Yukiko." Her eyes fill with tears. "Such devotion between those two. Such Love. She was a beautiful child. Watching her grow." Elsa says in a soft wondering tone.

Liam's and Richard's eyes open wide.

"Frigga and I, immediately dropped everything and flew to Japan. Anna, with our laboratory, arrived as soon as she could." She shakes her head. "I had not really thought about my children reproducing in years. Frigga had tried to do something, but she lacked the raw power needed."

"Even Mizuki and Genji could not succeed without the outside help of powerful magics. The magical Kitsune race naturally are able to interbreed with just about anything. My Icewomen, though, were too much for that power. But, it gave a start for other magics to work from."

Elsa continues to speak, awe in her voice, "It took months, and the help of other powerful people for me to comprehend what had occurred."

Sadness in her voice, "And more years before I could duplicate the magic."

Liam clears his throat, "Will you explain how your children reproduce? Given what you are saying it's not the two individuals merge and then separate into three Icemen like I assumed."

Herman and Elsa giggle. "No. Oh. It can look like that. But, it is harder than that." She says.

She looks at Herman, "Since this deals directly with you, do you wish to explain?"

Herman nods, "It was the opinion of everyone that... That information is private. All I will say is that reproduction for us. **IS**. Very difficult." He nods to Elsa, "You do not have to worry about a population explosion. There are, even after all these years, only two living children."

"It must be damned difficult." Liam remarks.

Herman nods, as he thinks, _'IT is very damn hard. You have to merge souls, not just bodies. To do that requires a closeness between the partners that only the greatest of Love provides. Then you separate, hoping like hell, that the disjoin does not destroy the newborn soul. The only way to do it, safely, is to have another person to help. And if that person isn't Elsa, it becomes even harder. Especially since the newborn soul must be placed instantly in a new body of magical ice.'_

He mentally snorts, 'Not very romantic.'

Herman gives a hard glance at Elsa, _'Most of us are sure that there are easier ways, but Elsa's environmental concerns about introducing new species, make sure that she is being very cautious about giving us the ability to reproduce quickly. Which we understand, but... If things go as planned, though, that restriction will be eased.' _

A pause_, 'I wonder what life will be like among the stars...'_

"Sadly, after about 6 months, my welcome was wearing thin." Elsa sighs, "And since I never intended to stay in Japan, permanently, I left. I had planned to return within a few years."

A deeper, more heartfelt sigh, "War, though, stopped that plan. And nothing I could say would convince them to leave Japan."

She pauses, obviously thinking. A raised eyebrow to Liam.

He shakes his head. He will not ask a question, here. He thinks, '_Any questions would be about magic, and she has made plain, that magic is a subject that she will not answer, unless that answer is what she wishes to talk about.'_

She nods. "I returned to Arendelle in late 1935, stopping my travels on the Anna. I needed to think about things... Continue to research, catalog, organize, and adapt the various magics that I had learned over the last fifteen years."

She sighs, "On the good side, I finally had the chance to really work with the Winter Olympic team, instead of being a fly by supporter. Which meant that when the 1936 Olympics occurred I went as a member of the team. As an unofficial coach to Lala Nilsen as she almost won the alpine combined, and Assistant to the Treasurer, like I normally did."

The Tower changes color to Yellow.

"On the bad side, that meant that I would have to meet and greet officials of the German Government."

"Hitler." Liam states.

Now the ice is Red. Small spikes appear.

She grimaces and nods yes, "Oh. It was only twice. And only once did we exchange words. He wondered if I was related to Elsa Bjorgman. I gave him my standard answer of: Yes, but distantly. That was all. But. I had to shake his hand again." She shudders.

"However much joy I was feeling from the Olympics vanished as the surge of echoes, that almost overwhelmed me. I had to retreat into the Alps and release my powers in reaction." She says in a joyless voice.

A look at Liam, who had questions in his eyes.

"Once he reappeared in the early 1920's, I did have people watching him. And they continued to watch him. So, what happened was not a surprise. What was a surprise was the strength of my reaction."

A nod to Liam. "You must realize that I still had no idea what was happening. The closest thing I could think of, at the time, was that he was a massive magic user, like I am. But, when I took that chance and looked for that, there was nothing. Oh, maybe some minor traces of power, no doubt related to his personal charm, but nothing major."

"His personal charm?" Liam asks quickly.

Elsa nods. "Yes. It does not come across in the surviving video footage, but in person he had a very compelling and engaging personality. At least at this time in his life. And, before you ask, I could not do anything about him. I had no reason to do so."

"But?"

"Yes. I did not like his tactics. But, his public goal of removing the Versailles Treaty was something that I could understand, and predicted that would happen back in 1919. "

She sighs, "What this meeting did do was to make the immediacy of war personal. So when I returned to Arendelle, I ordered Herman and the others to return." She nods to Herman.

The tower's color returns to normal.

"At this time, I began to spend more time in and around the city of Arendelle. From 1875 to 1936, I rarely stayed long in Arendelle. Even during WWI, I spent most of my time in my Palace, rather than in the city, itself. I reconnected with the city. And ordered air-raid shelters to dug and other preparations."

"I was, finally, going to prepare for war."

end chapter 1

* * *

A scene about Elsa's children and what they are doing.

Zürich, Switzerland. During the Interview.

An office building. The office of the president of Fractal.

Elsa's son Njord, known as Menno Njordson is watching Elsa's interview. He is tall, handsome, Nordic in appearance with light blond hair and blue eyes.

A phone is in one hand. He puts it down.

"I wonder how long before...people show up." he remarks.

His assistant is a normal human, 30 years old year nice looking, if not beautiful, black-haired from Italy, perhaps. Carina says, "It will be interesting."

She pauses. "Are you sure?"

"It is a bit late, don't you think?" He smiles.

She blushes and nods.

Then he says, "Do not worry, the first people will be polite. My money, or rather Elsa's money, will make sure about that. It will be interesting to see how the Government will act. Given all the support we've given them over the years, and how much more that we represent in the future, they will not want to offend us."

"Other nations? Other groups?"

Njord shrugs. "Other nations are not going to want to offend Switzerland, so, in public they will be polite. Off camera, there will be problems. Security is warned. But... the more they attack us... the more we are seen as the underdog. And other people will rally around us."

"The various corrupt governments breaking laws to crack down on a law-abiding business. We look like the good guys." Carina says.

Njord nods. "Eventually. Things may get rough. But the military actions of others, especially Ragnhild in Karachi, will focus the various military units on them, not us. Spies? Yes. Assassins? Yes. Riot police, perhaps. A full-scale military operation, not likely."

He glances at her. "I expect that you will find yourself irresistible to the opposite sex."

"Ha. Until they find out that I'm lesbian."

"In which case you'll be irresistible to any female you meet."

She grimaces, then she asks, "Just take the money and tell you what I told them, like normal?"

Njord smiles. "If they want to pay you for your fantasies, let them. You know what Queen Elsa wants you to tell them. They will not believe her... But they will believe the same information if they hear it from their spies." He shakes his head at the perversity of spies.

She nods.

Njord smiles. "Aren't you glad that I spotted your math and communication talents when you were in Junior High?"

She snorts, "I know how you guys work now. You did not spot me by accident."

Njord nods. "Frigga's programs swept up information about just about every school child, and screens them for selected skills and attributes. That gives us a list. We then screen that list with magic. Finding...Lucky people. That list gets magically filtered for Loyalty. Those spells are still a work in progress and we do miss people. Anyone on that final list gets a personal visit from someone."

He points to her. "I was in the area when your name popped up on the list."

Carina laughs. "My mother tried to raise me while working in soul-destroying jobs. You... I have a life. I have saved my mother from her life and I have given her the life of luxury in the Bahamas. Thank you. AND... unless I do something stupid, I'll retire a very, very wealthy woman." She smiles. "Not bad for a girl who started working on her back when she was fourteen."

She thinks for a moment, then asks, "I've never asked, but why Luck, then Loyalty?"

"Lucky people are special. They can help or hurt. The people who make the luck list, but fail the loyalty test are potential problems. That list is given to Elizabeth. For further screening."

She shivers. "That sounds... chilling. I've met Elizabeth. Of all of Elsa's children, she scares me the most."

Njord nods. "Yes. Of all of us, she is the most dangerous." He shudders.

A pause, then.

The phone rings.

"The private number of the Prime Minister. It begins." Njord says as he picks up the phone.

* * *

Thank you for reading

jeff


	11. Chapter 10 Astrid Elsa Oaken chapter 2

Astrid Oaken chapter 2

Thank you to ptahaegyptus2 for your support and Beta.

Note: Due to a more intense discussion of magic, there will be more _behind the scenes, thoughts from Elsa and others in this_, and future chapters.

* * *

"Good thing, too." Herman says with satisfaction. "That was needed. Plus, we were all personally very happy to return to Arendelle. The British had us in Jaffa trying to do something as the Arabs were revolting over the influx of Jews. Horrible mess."

"OK. What did you do?" Liam asks.

"For the first time, really, I sat down and talked to Joan, Elizabeth, Canute and Alexander about how I could help them. During WWI neither I nor they had a clue. Now, though..."

Herman says, "We could finally get her to listen to us."

Elsa sadly grimaces, "My lifelong pacifism was shining through, but in a bad way."

Herman nods, "Her peaceful position is a good one take before the shooting starts, but when the cold war turns hot... You have got to listen and follow the advice of the experts on war."

Elsa sighs, heavily, "Which I try to do. As I said, earlier, I am not a warrior Queen."

She gives a hard look at the camera. "Something for the people to think about, by the way. Once fighting begins, I will not micro-manage my forces. They will fight to win and they learned about warfare under total war conditions. This is your warning."

She continues, "I began to experiment with my powers. I used my new, hard-won, knowledge to help them. I developed magical items that would help them. Frigga and I started to try to mix magic and industrialization as a way to make many minimally powered, but useful items."

She snaps her fingers and a snow globe appears. "Here Liam." She tosses it to Liam. Another snap, "Here Richard," She tosses that one to Richard. "When you break them, it creates a small field of cold, just below freezing, temperatures around it. An example of one of those early creations."

They catch the snow globes. They are ice, and feel cool, but not cold. Inside it is swirling snow.

"Do with them as you wish, gentlemen."

They look at each other.

"They are that easy to make?" Richard asks.

Elsa shrugs, "Child's play." She snaps her fingers and many of them flood the floor of the room, another snap and they vanish.

Richard gulps.

Queen Elsa smiles, then says, "And, I began to show them how to use their natural powers."

Liam's eyebrow raises, "I thought you said that you gave them no magical powers?"

Elsa replies, "That is basically correct in that I gave them no innate magical spells that they could use from birth. But, since they, like all my children, are magical beings, they have a far stronger ability to use various traditional magics than a normal human being. They can learn more traditional spells, like humans can. So, they can and do know magics other than just mine."

She explains, "During that time on the Anna, Frigga and I began a still continuing task of fixing and cataloging spells."

A soft laugh, "Most earlier magic users, in order to protect their spells, would deliberately write down their spells in code, or make them wrong in some way. The original author would know the mistake or code, but someone reading the spell, without that magic user around, would not be able to get the spell to work."

A smile and nod to the camera, "Which is one of the major reasons why the spells in medieval books or even more ancient spells do not work."

A sigh, "Not to mention just plain bad translations. The number of languages I had to learn… Most of this time I spent just trying to determine what the codes were or where the mistakes were. Later, as computers got better and the magical skills of my family and I increased, we could decode and fix the spells."

A mysterious smile, "The corrected spells work."

A point to Liam, "Normal humans still have problems using them. To use magic requires a… talent for magic, like say, a talent for music. And to prevent problems, even though there are people who that will ignore this, having a talent for music does NOT mean that you have a talent for magic. Also, as always with magic you need a great deal of imagination."

She thinks, '_Talents that I and Frigga look for and prize, almost beyond worth. My few human apprentices are still a little weak on experience, but they have the basics down.'_

Lima looks at Herman.

He shrugs, "I am a soldier. Not a sorcerer. The Kings and Queens, yeah, they are. Others of us, it varies. I know a translation spell that works for simple phrases like 'hands up' or 'stop or I'll shoot' that type of thing. Talking about the meaning of life, though, is beyond it."

A thin smile, "Joan and Elizabeth have basically perfected a spell that helps against heat. It is temporary, but useful. I know that one. I was taught a lesson in being prepared, so I made sure I learned that spell. A couple of illusion spells. And a couple of other, more combat oriented spells, that I will not mention."

"Joan?" Liam asks, either one.

"That is for her to talk about." Herman states.

Elsa nods in agreement.

She says, "Not that this mattered during WWII: learning magic is hard and takes time. It was not until after the war that they and I could really work on spells, especially non-cold related ones."

She sighs, "This did take time, and by 1938, I reached a point that I needed help. I wanted to add some real magic to my children. So, we traveled to the Himalayas where I could receive the help I needed. Between travel time there and back, plus time in the Valley, it was late 1939 before I returned to Europe."

"Just in time for Russia to invade Finland." Herman says with a smile. "So we got to try out our new abilities under pretty much ideal conditions. That helped out Finland a great deal."

"What did you add?" Liam asks.

Elsa looks at Herman.

Herman shrugs. "A lot of it was defensive in nature. Although, this is when the Knight's magic sword was created." He pats his sword. "And this was improved as well."

"You're not going to go into detail?"

"Not really. As I said the changes were not offensive in nature."

Liam looks at Elsa.

She nods, agreeing with Herman and not saying a thing.

She thinks about her actions at that time,_'When I created my children... I made lucky, inspired guesses about how to make their souls. It worked, but as I grew in knowledge and power, I realized how...crudely made, especially Eric, Ragnhild, Asa, and Frigga's souls were. And how delicate Herman's and his sisters and brothers souls were. So, I used that new knowledge to...strengthen their souls. Making them more independent of me. More and more a separate species, not beings that are dependent on me.'_

Queen Elsa rubs her chin and sighs, "Now, comes a difficult time to explain." She waves her hands at the camera. "Everyone knows how WWII turns out. But, looking at it from 1939, things were different. Germany's attacks on Czechoslovakia and Poland. Russia's attack on Poland and Finland. Japan vs China and Russia. Problems in various colonies, such as the mess in Palestine, that I summoned my family from. The world was spiraling into war and chaos."

She grimaces in pain, "My guilty feelings, and magical questions, over my encounter with Hitler in 1909, the guilt from my disappointments over the Versailles Treaty: those weighed heavily in my mind. Unlike during WWI, when I stood back and did nothing but help the victims, I decided to take a more active part in WWII."

She says in a hard voice, "If I knew then, what I know now, I would have acted differently. Against both Stalin and Hitler. Actually, at the time, I seriously considered Stalin the worst threat. He had already killed, with his famine in the Ukraine, at least six million of his own people. Hitler had not. Not in 1939, or even 1940. It was not until 1941 when the Einsatzgruppen came to my attention."

"But, to return to the winter of 1939-1940, I went with Joan and the others to war in Finland." A shake on her head. "A learning experience. Oh, I had fought magical wars, but not a technical war, which is a very different type of war."

Seeing a puzzled look on Liam's face, she expands on that comment. "A magical war is more like a duel, a battle between one or two sorcerers on one side and a similar limited number on the other side."

She waves her hand, dismissively, "Oh, there normally are others, but it is a contest of strength and skill between a limited number of people. A technical war is a war between masses of men, generals, organization and logistics. Skills that most sorcerers do not know."

A happy grin, "That is why, in the past, when other magic users have used mass spells to create, say zombies, that they are defeated so easily. They are not generals and they make stupid mistakes that a trained officer, or warrior for that matter would not make."

A glance and smile at Herman, "Herman and the others were a great help, as they walked me through what a modern war was like. My experiences during WWI...did not prepare me properly." A shake of her head, "Even though I viewed the aftereffects of those battles… That did NOT do justice to the horrors of battle."

Herman nods enthusiastically.

"After Finland had to surrender, just too many Russians, I returned to Arendelle and ordered Frigga to get in touch with her friends from WWI. And I told Eric to get in touch with the British officers that last handled him and the military platoon. They all left for England in March 1940."

She laughs, "Which put me in very bad position when the German torpedo boat Greif and the 234th bicycle squadron landed on April 9th. Oh, I could have stopped them. Even Ragnhild or Asa could have stopped them, but not without revealing ourselves. I decided not to stop them. Even if I did stop them in Arendelle, it would not stop the invasion of Norway."

An illusion of the German torpedo boat Greif, with it's deck full of soldiers appears next to her. It vanishes after a few seconds.

A grim look appears, "Descendants of my Palace guards, with my approval, began the first resistance group in Norway. The next few months was my introduction into fighting the Gestapo. That first attempt, they won. I was too cautious and too...soft. But, in later attempts, I won."

"Once people began to die, why didn't you use your powers, or at least allow your children to?" Liam asks.

"At the time, my thoughts were still based on my experiences from WWI, so I did not use my powers, or order my children to use theirs, beyond what was necessary for survival." She says sadly.

She says in a thoughtful tone, "There is another reason for my lack of magic, though. During the 1920's as I said earlier, I met other long-lived people. One of the… rules, let us say, of that society was to use magic covertly. They are my only peers, so...being accepted was a goal. I was the new woman in that society and tried to follow its rules closely."

A grim look appears, a glance at the camera, "You must understand, the war in the western front was basically a clean war. Equal in horror to WWI, but without the gas weapons it was a cleaner war."

"After I lost to the Gestapo, I retreated to England." A sigh, "I still kept my powers a secret, but I allowed British Intelligence to use Oaken Trading to insert people into Norway and other places."

Another deep sigh, "At the time, I began to work heavily with the Red Cross, like I did during WWI."

She thinks, '_I was also told by my magical friends, especially the one I know as Merlin, that everything was under control. The war was a mistake and would be resolved quickly. I believed them. They failed.'_

A smile, "I did send the British and Americans a plan to build warships out of Ice. Non-magical ice. They called it Habakkuk. It revealed to them what they called Pykrete, something I developed in the 1840's to help my ice harvesters. You mix sawdust with water and freeze it. The ice becomes as strong as concrete, without magic. You can make ships quickly and easily. And, if large enough, even without magic to protect them, they can last a long time."

A pause. "Think an iceberg with engines. Made into an aircraft carrier. A very large carrier." A twinkle in her eye appears as she says that.

A thought, '_They will see...'_

A look at Liam, a twitch of her lips, "Go ahead, Liam. I will not anticipate your question."

He smiles, "Thank you, Queen Elsa. What changed? From earlier comments, you indicted that you would be more active during WWII."

She nods. "The attack on Russia. Or more accurately what was happening behind the German lines. Rumors of… horror quickly reached me. I used my abilities to reach Russia in September 1941 and found that the rumors understated the horror."

She thinks, '_And that horror convinced me that Merlin had lost control of the war. That freed me to act.'_

She says in a sad tone, "This was the time that… I had to admit, with great sadness, that the Geneva Convention, which I had invested so much time and effort, would only work when everybody wanted those rules to work."

A sad wave of her hands, "Our military advisors warned us, as we wrote those rules, that without a clear and enforceable penalty for breaking the Conventions rules that they would be of limited use… "

A pause, then she adds, "That means that during an active war, you did what was necessary to win and counted the cost later. If that meant breaking these rules, so be it.."

A huge sad sigh, "A problem that still exists today. The only way to enforce the rules is to win the war and then create war crime trials. A very messy and very limited solution. My current and future actions will be closer to the rules than most, but even I will break those rules."

A sad shake of her head. "War means death and destruction and that can not be softened, however much I might wish it otherwise." She finishes in a soft, quiet tone.

Liam and Richard look at each, they have visited war zones and know what she is talking about.

In a stronger tone, she continues, 'Since then, I have tried to follow the spirit behind the Convention, even if that meant I was bending, if not breaking, the letter of it. My family has been given firm rules to treat everyone humanely. Unfortunately in the heat of combat that may not happen."

A deep sigh, "And post battle, unfortunately, there will be people who will try to break the rules, or more properly, obstruct our efforts to help people, due to their short-sighted goals, their stupid politics, or simple ignorant bigotry." She finishes with deep disgust in her voice.

A look at the camera, "Help people first. Then have petty arguments over who helped them the most. That is the best way." She speaks in a hard tone.

A large exhale, "I had to make a choice then. Russian forces were, as far as I could tell, losing the war. I had to help Russia and Stalin or help Germany by doing nothing. I remembered my mistake before WWI with Berchtold in Vienna. NOT acting would be a mistake. Stalin, for all the deaths that he caused, was building something, even if I hated his methods. Hitler, given my feelings for him, I could not support him."

After another sigh, she says slowly, "I had to choose between two evils. I chose Stalin since Churchill supported him."

She nods to Herman, "On the advice of my family, I decided to act. It took a month or so for me to get things prepared."

The ice of the tower turns Red and the tower groans.

A low moan, "My plans forced me to find out and cooperate with Russian forces, so I used my powers to introduce myself to Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili or as he is otherwise known as Joseph Stalin."

A spike in the angry color of the tower.

"GODS. What a disgusting feeling, even through my defenses, that just touching that evil man gave me." She states in a tone of loathing.

"If I had touched him before I made the deal… I do not know what I would have done. He was needed to defeat Hitler. But…" She finishes in a very depressed tone.

"I showed him my powers and told him my plans. He agreed to them." A low laugh, "He was about to retreat from Moscow. Meeting me changed those plans."

The ice of the tower returns to normal.

Silence… a brooding silence.

"And?" Liam asks as the silence stretches.

"And on November 16, 1941, I began to control the weather of Russia, especially around the Moscow region, but as the winter went on, my reach expanded." A harsh laugh, "Controlling that big of an area was harder than I expected. So, it wasn't until late November that the blizzard I built was ready to go."

"As German forces were attacking Moscow, my blizzard stopped them cold. And gave the Russians the advantage they needed to counter-attack. I was Russia's General Winter." She finishes in a hard tone.

Liam licks his lips and asks, "During WWI you declined to use your powers that like. You were afraid, of losing your… soul, I believe. What changed?"

Queen Elsa shifts in her throne. She brushes back her braid. "Several things had changed. The change that mattered the most was that I was not suffering from depression. Also, and of near equal importance, was that my powers were blocking the 'echoes' successfully."

In a soft aside, she says, "That was one of the delays, as I had to teach that spell to my children, so they could use it to help me, as I started to use my powers to control the weather of Russia."

Herman grins.

She says in a thoughtful tone, "After that, I had grown in knowledge, control, and power during the interwar years."

"With those changes, it was possible, difficult but possible. to control the weather of Russia without massive damage to my soul. Though the cumulative effect of the war did cause me to retreat to Antarctica after the war. " She finishes in a cheerless tone.

A small attempt at laughter, "On a practical side, Blinker's plan in WWI was to use my powers during late spring and summer. I would be creating a Siberian blizzard in northern France in the summer. Which is very much against Mother Nature. In Russia, though, that winter was going to happen. All I had to do was direct it, control it. I was not working against Mother Nature."

A sigh, "It was still very hard work, mainly due to the massive area I was controlling. This is when the knowledge of climate change to me really struck home."

A touch to her head, "Up here I knew that weather effects are widespread." She touches her heart, "But here, I knew what to do about that. With my increased wisdom, I followed my heart, my soul and not my head as I was controlling the weather."

A shake of her head, "I still made mistakes that winter, but they were minor ones."

A pause. "That six months of daily effort is among my greatest displays of power. Not so much on a day-to-day basis, but simply due to the time scale and the level of control over the details that it required."

"And the deaths?" Liam asks quietly.

Her face takes on a grim countenance, "That did and still does pain me."

Herman moves to comfort her, and says, "It was war. That weather, while somewhat harsher than normal, was expected. The Russian's were prepared for it. The Germans should have been. IF they lost lives because of their mistakes, how could Mother be blamed?"

"Thank you, Herman." She pats his hand. "That is as good a rationalization as I can use. It helps, but, I still, occasionally wake from the nightmares of that winter."

A soul-felt sigh, "As spring finally arrived, I retreated back to Arendelle to rest and heal."

A cough from Liam. "A question?"

A soft sigh, "Go ahead?"

"Climate change?"

Elsa grimaces, "Yes, I was… I knew I could do it, but the daily details were… Are stronger and stranger that I originally thought. Still… A full discussion of that subject would be best done at a different time. At this time, all I will say is: Climate change is powerful and dangerous. Doing it, correctly, is much harder than people will assume."

Liam grimaces, "Later?"

Elsa nods, "Yes, When I get into my environmental goals in my next life, I will get into that subject in more detail."

He nods.

She continues with a small shake of her head. "Oh, on the magical side, it was a rest. On a personal side, it wasn't. I began a new war with the Gestapo."

A grimace, "I was harder than before, more willing to accept that people I love will die in warfare. It helped that Germany's need for the best officers in Russia, meant that I was dealing with the second string, as it were."

"But, by the time that fall began, and I left for Russia again, the occupation forces in Arendelle and my resistance group had come to an understanding. They were, basically, safe inside the city limits, as long as I knew that the citizens would be treated as I expected. Outside the city limits...they were free game, but so were my men."

A look at Liam, a raised eyebrow, "Anything?"

A glance down, "Why not a direct attack on Hitler? Surely he was a legitimate military target?"

A sigh, and a shake of her head, "The primary reason? The Organization he created. Killing him would not destroy that. The war would go on. I did consider it. He traveled and an encounter could be arranged. Freezing his plane out the air would be hard to trace. However, on the advice of Elizabeth, who convinced me that Hitler was just a corporal and however great a politician he was...his abilities as a general were questionable."

She nods, "Elizabeth was correct. A quick strike to Moscow, which his generals wanted, would have been much harder to stop. Whither or not it would have won the war, I do not know. The loss of Moscow, though, would have greatly increased his chance to win."

A raised eyebrow, "And today?" Liam asks in a hard tone.

She says in a strong voice, "I must act. Events are spiralling out of control. I must help people. I must protect Antarctica. I must stop that coming storm. There is no leader among mankind that I can trust to do it. So, I can not work through them. I tried. That leaves myself."

"Even if it is against those rules of your peers?"

She nods and sighs, "I must act. NO matter what. The only other option is to retreat and let… horror happen. I can not do that."

Another sigh, "I have gotten, at least, a neutral reaction from most them. They will allow me a chance."

He nods, slowly. His eyes narrow, "How much behind the scenes actions have occurred, throughout history?"

She shrugs. "I do not know."

A pause. "I will say that all myths, legends, stories have a kernel of truth somewhere in the them."

A look at the camera and in a firm tone she states, "That is not to say that all conspiracy theories are correct, most are not. The KISS principle applies here. Keep it simple, stupid. Use that before you believe any theory."

A look at Liam, "I believe we have exhausted this line of questioning, for now."

He nods, slowly.

Queen Elsa picks up her story, "In September 1942, my family and I went to Stalingrad. We lost Pol to a flamethrower while helping Pavlov defend his fortified house. I, then, in October began to control the weather in southern Russia. We coordinated with General Zhukov as I made sure that the weather was in his favor during the climax and final stages to the battle."

A pause, then Elsa says in a strong positive voice, "I must mention the women fighting during WWII. I met at Stalingrad many powerful women, fighters to the death."

A small laugh, "Later years, as other nations, primarily the US, started to add women into combat units, I wondered at some of the arguments against women in combat. There was plenty of evidence about of how good women in combat could be. I saw, especially, during these months at Stalingrad, many powerful examples of women in combat."

A smile as she continues, "One of which, was the 1077th anti-aircraft regiment that fought in the early stages of the battle. In 2 days of combat they destroyed over 80 tanks as they fought off 3 assault battalions. Females soldiers manned the regiment. By the end of the battle, their officers were all female, as well."

An ice sculpture of a group of women in dirty, torn uniforms standing around an anti-aircraft cannon appears. It morphs into a young smiling woman standing next to a YAK fighter.

"Also, Ragnhild made friends and flew with Lydia Litvyak the first female fighter ace. Gods, what a fighter. She died in combat when she was 21." A wipe to her eyes, to brush away a tear.

She says in a careful voice, "This is not to understate or degrade all the tremendous and death-defying effort put in by the regular male soldiers, during this battle or any battle, for that matter."

A sad smile, "You must remember when I was born and the totally male dominated culture I was born into. Anything that proves that women are equal to men is important to me."

She thinks, '_I have understated my efforts toward women's rights over years, out of appreciation and admiration of the totally normal women that lead those campaigns. I do not want my appearance in any way to degrade their successful efforts.'_

Her eyes fill with tears. "What a winter. That time in Stalingrad. Whatever doubts I had about the people of Russia faded then."

The ice of the tower changes to red and then changes back to normal.

"Then, in the spring, as I told Stalin that I was retreating to Arendelle to rest, he finally decided to spring Blinker's idea of a summer blizzard at Kursk on me. We had an argument. A bad one."

She purses her lips. "That ended the formal help I was giving Russia."

A nod to Herman, "Elizabeth, however, had established a good strong relationship with General Zhukov, so she and her squad stayed behind helping him."

A pause and then a sigh, "I went ahead and split up my platoon in June 1943. The magical improvements had proved themselves, so it was possible for them to act without Eric and I being nearby."

Liam nods, understanding.

"Elizabeth, as I said, stayed in Russia. Canute returned to England, helping British Intelligence." A laugh. "Although, Ian never said it, I'm sure that Canute influenced his creation of James Bond."

"Alexander's squad, I kept with me as my bodyguards. Asa stayed in Arendelle fighting the war against the Gestapo. Her greatest success was organizing a mass escape of Polish and Russian women from a military brothel."

Queen Elsa shakes her head and says in a quiet, respectful voice, "So...many horrors. So, few resources. So… many nightmares."

A hard glance at the camera. "There are consequences and limits to my ability to forgive."

A look to the ceiling as she says, "Ragnhild… Officially used a Polish identity and flew fighters for the British. But.." A laugh. "There are holes in her stories. Massive ones. I can trace her actions, somewhat from German records, but she was very active."

A smile as she remembers, "Eric… I sent to Britain and ordered him to reveal his powers. He became my link to the higher reaches of the Allied power structure. I did, under protest, show my powers to Churchill and few selected individuals as well. Sigh. There was the same argument about summer blizzards. But. Admiral Hall was still alive and convinced Churchill to drop it."

"Joan?" Liam asks Herman.

He looks at Elsa.

She says, "Hold a minute, Liam. I will get her to answer that question."

She does nothing, visible. But.

Joan quickly appears at the doorway. "You called, Mother?"

"We have gotten to the second half of 1943, Joan. Liam has a question."

"Queen Joan could you tell me what you did in that time frame?' Liam inquires.

Joan purses her lips, and says, "We… slipped into occupied areas and helped various resistance groups. And...did our damnedest to stop the SS. Especially their death trains."

She looks at the camera, her eyes hard, "To stop the holocaust of the Romani, mainly, because there were very few people trying to help the Gypsies. Everyone was trying to help the jews. Even members of the SS helped the jews, trying to buy post-war clemency with a few lives as they helped even more people die."

She says in a sad tone, "I lost my Knight, Lovag, during an attempt to free hundreds of Gypsies in October 1943. We had hijacked a train and he, Herman, and Brekkie were approaching the coast where ships were waiting. I and the rest of the squad were delaying the pursuit. The resistance group we were working with screwed up and planted an anti-tank mine under the railroad tracks too soon. It blew up the engine, where he was."

Herman interrupts, "Brekkie and I were trying to save the lives of the gypsies. By the time we had things under control it was too late. Between the steam explosion and the fires he was dead."

Joan nods. She continues in a hard tone, "In May 1944, I lost Brekkie at Auschwitz. The death machine was working overtime and I wanted to stop or disrupt it. He and other members of my squad were scouting the area. He made a mistake and revealed himself. They used grenades to blow him to pieces. They gathered him up and threw him into an incinerator. Due to that I had to call off my planned attack."

A grim grin appears, "Later, I found out more information from the German side. The guard unit covered it up because they did not think that anyone in Berlin would believe a story about a talking snowman."

She continues, still in that harsh tone, "I never had the resources to save more than a few at a time. The logistics of moving mass groups of people through German controlled territory kept defeating me. We could free hundreds of people in our attacks, but had no way to get them outside German controlled areas. The Allies always had higher priorities than helping me."

Liam looks at Elsa, whose face is grim and gloomy. "Surely you could have helped her?"

Elsa looks at Joan and she says, "I did. But, it was as Joan said, it was the logistics of moving people who was the problem. Days and days of running from pursuit would destroy any large group. Oh, when possible I could help with the weather. But, most of the people we were helping had even less clothes than the Germans so any weather bad enough to stop the Germans would also stop the people we were helping."

"Damn." Richard says.

Everyone nods, gloomily.

Joan is about to leave, but Elsa gives her a look and she stays.

"What did you do?" Liam asks Elsa.

Elsa sighs, "Frigga told me about the Tube Alloys project and the Manhattan Project. How she found out, I never asked her. Both of us sent the British and Americans papers as we used our knowledge to help them. Oppenheimer, after the war, even sent a letter of praise to the quote unknown unquote mathematician that helped him."

She says in a sad tone, "I… I stalked Germany making sure that their atomic project would not work. It was Alexander's squad that destroyed the Norwegian heavy water plant that the Germans were using. And he sunk the ships that were to transport that heavy water to Germany. And… I found and destroyed places in Germany that were necessary to destroy their project."

"By January 1944, Germany would not have an atomic device before the Americans." She states with finality. (author's note: I fiddled with the timeline, to make that work.)

"I, finally, could step back and look at the war as a whole. Germany was going to lose. The questions now were how to do it with less damage and what the world might look like afterward."

"Frigga?" Liam asks. "I assume she was involved with Ultra, but you mentioned the Manhattan Project, so was she or you involved it that?"

Frigga appears and answers the question, "In addition to Ultra, I became buried in various secret projects. Jet Engines, ASDIC and explosives for example. How much I influenced those projects varied. My greatest help was with Tommy Flowers in the design of the Colossus computer."

A small smile, "It's amazing how much people forget the no name programmers, secretaries, others that have great ideas and/or help find ways to get those ideas to work. As long as I was willing to let others claim my ideas, I could help greatly."

Frigga looks at the camera as she explains, "I am not trying to steal anyones work or ideas. Most of the time, all I had to do was point out small problems or small potential ways to do things better, as any good secretary would do. Like Queen Elsa, when she was in America helping their early computers, my greatest contribution was my ability to kept those early, monstrously hot, computers cool."

Christina appears, her normal disguise is a dark-skinned Spanish citizen, but at this time, she looks like a Icewoman with shoulder-length snowy hair, she looks at the camera, "I am Christina, Frigga's assistant. We mean that." She finishes in a strong tone.

She laughs, "The ideas and concepts of computers were from Tommy and his team. Our special abilities, our magic, if you will, has helped us go further and faster than normal people, but that is all. Being able to, basically, ignore the heating problems with our personal computers has helped us in massively untold ways."

Another laugh, "Those brainstorming sessions with Tommy… then and in later years, with other great creators, that I attended were of great help.."

She nods to Frigga. "She was getting more and more buried in lab work and could not travel around. So I stayed home during the years she was aboard the Anna. After WWII, I was the one, traveling around, becoming a secretary or an assistant, or just a programmer helping people. Learning from them, much more than they learned from me."

She pauses. Liam does not ask her any followup questions. She and Frigga vanish.

Elsa resumes her story, "As far as the Manhattan Project goes… in August 1943 Churchill used me, or rather the threat of my powers, to leverage more cooperation between the US and Britain. The US had stopped giving Britain data about the atomic bomb in early 1943. This restarted that data flow. The rest I will get to in a few minutes." She smiles, mysteriously.

"As I said, I had to plan for the future. I wanted to influence the post-war world. But, how? Oaken Trading was not a good tool. I had to find something."

A sigh, "I did. The leaders of the free world did know about my powers. Churchill and Stalin directly, Roosevelt through Churchill. That gave me an opening I could use. But, in order to be taken seriously, I needed more information, so I could give the best advice."

She sighs, "As far as my movements go… In 1944 I needed a more worldwide look at the war, so I began to travel. To see the war in all the theatres."

Elsa says in a dry tone, "I used Elizabeth's connections to travel through Russia east, stopping and looking at how things were going. In Vladivostok I saw the massive lend-lease effort going through that port. The Arctic convoys get the press, but about 50% of the American lend-lease moved through Vladivostok."

The ice around her turns yellow.

A sad smile, "I used the… particular truce between Japan and Russia over the shipping routes to America to visit Japan in March 1944. I met Mizuki in Hokkaido for a couple of days."

A sad shake of her head. "I tried to convince her to leave Japan and come with me. She refused."

The ice turns red.

Joan and Herman grab her shoulders in comfort.

A deep sad sigh, "I gave my children free will. I was not going to remove it and order her to go with me."

A tear falls from her face. "That choice…"

Joan bends down and hugs her. Elsa returns the hug.

The ice stays a reddish-yellow.

Liam and Richard shiver a little as the temperature drops a little.

She wipes her face. "I arrived in San Francisco in early June 1944. I spent the rest of year in the US. Talking to people, helping where I could. I did show my powers to Roosevelt and a few selected others."

"Since I already knew of the Manhattan Project, I did visit various sites and helped as I could. General Groves had a very good team, though. I helped, but that help wasn't necessary. ENIAC, though, was another story. That was a greater success story." She says in a satisfied tone.

A gay laugh, "One of the funniest days of my life was watching them try to figure out why ENIAC worked so much better when I was around." A smile, "Simple cooling spells did wonders. Still, I did help them, not so much of the nuts and bolts side, but helping of the leadership side. I just have to fix things when I see people not being utilized properly."

She shrugs, "Helping people, leading them, so they can grow is a career. One, that in my next life, I will emphasize more." A secretive smile.

"I was very dissatisfied and disappointed that the Americans totally screwed up my plan to build ships out of ice. All they did was build a small-scale model, which would melt very fast, obviously. And then they complained that the bigger ships would melt too fast." She grinds her teeth. "Frustrating."

She thinks, '_Now, of course. I can use my magic and the ice fields of Antarctica to build as big a navy as I need. Equipping them, manning and training are a problem, but that has been solved.' _

"Then the German's started their winter campaign in the Ardennes. I flew over and cleared the weather for the Allies ending that attempt to forestall the war. I stayed in Europe for the rest of the war."

'_At Breslau in February, 1945,_' Queen Elsa thinks, '_I finally found Merlin. Elizabeth, who was with the Russian army besieging the city, spotted him. He was at the chemical warfare factory at Dyrenfurth. We…. had an argument about how things had gone so wrong. He could not explain how he lost control of Hitler. His only real positive thing he did, as far as I can tell, was to prevent the operational use of chemical weapons.'_

She reflects, sadly, '_We had a battle there. A short one. I surprised him with my raw strength. He surprised me with the ease in which his spells found weaknesses in my defenses. Elizabeth saved the day, interrupting us before we escalated to really deadly spells, and we both retreated. A few years later, we met and apologized to each other, each blaming the stress of the war. But...'_

At flick of her eyes at Herman, she thinks, '_That is when I realized that Merlin considered my children to be just complex golems, without a soul.' _

A mental laugh_, 'The look on his face when Elizabeth struck him with that fire spell, the first spell that she created on her own. He just can not understand how I would give anyone the power that I give my children. He believes that there must be iron-clad methods with which I control them.'_

She says in a grim tone, "I was there in April 1945 in Berlin when he died. I was not going to let him escape, but that wasn't necessary as he committed suicide."

A pause as the ice changes to Red. "Unfortunately that day, April 30, 1945, is a very sad date for me. I also received a note from my brother-in-law Shippo. Mizuki, Genji and little Yukiko died on the night of March 9, 1945. The great Firebombing of Tokyo. They died within yards of getting to safety, as they delayed their escape to help people." She finishes in an ashen voice.

Joan says, "Mother?"

Elsa wipes the tears from her eyes. "I'm fine, Joan."

Elsa shakes her head, trying to clear her thoughts, "I left Europe than and traveled to San Francisco. Churchill, using knowledge of my past given to him by Admiral Hall, gave me a position in the British team helping to write the charter to the UN."

The color of the ice retreats to yellow.

A smile, "I could fix some of the problems from the League of Nations. Still… It is not a true world government."

A look at the camera, "It will be interesting to see how the UN will react to my existence." A mysterious smile.

"But, that is in the future. In 1946 Trygve Lie, a friend, a protegé of Elsa Bjorgman, became the first UN Secretary-General. A bone to me."

A soft smile. "He was very surprised when I revealed that I was Elsa Bjorgman, the person that inspired him to get into politics before WWI. He and I had several pleasant days talking about the old days before WWI." (author note: The timeline doesn't really fit, but I had to use this.)

She sighs, "Still, with the UN up and operating, I retreated to Antarctica. The long-term effects of all the magic I released during the war was catching up to me. And… the emotional effects of the deaths during the war...were causing nightmares. I needed some time to...heal my soul."

She looks at Liam and then at Joan. "Liam, I think this is a good place for you to ask that other question for Joan."

"Huh?" He glances at Joan.

Who raises an eyebrow.

"Ah! Magic! Queen Elsa said that you were able to cast normal spells?"

Joan looks at her mother. Who looks like she needs a few minutes of rest.

The color of the ice returns to normal.

"Magic." Joan begins, "Yes. Since we, Queen Elsa's children, are strongly magical beings so the casting of traditional magical spells are possible."

A nod to Herman. "It is not easy process, so many of her children only know a limited number of spells."

Joan pauses. "Exactly how many and how powerful I am, I will decline to get into specifics, Mr Black. I will state that Elizabeth and I are powerful, even by the standards of mother's magical friends." She finishes in a cool tone.

"As Queen Elsa is frequently busy doing other projects, Frigga and I work together to develop and improve many basic magical ideas."

She shakes her head, "The number of times Frigga has thought that she has developed a unified theory of math and magic." A small laugh. "The mistakes we have made trying to prove that theory."

Frigga appears and says, "You thought I was correct as well, Joan."

Joan raises an eyebrow, "And you, Frigga, are the smartest of Mother's children, you are correct, always."

Frigga raises an eyebrow, but says nothing. She thinks, _'No. Not always. I know that we must present a positive face, but I have made mistakes_.'

"Still, you are correct, we have learned from failure. More and faster than we would have learned from success, I'm sure."

Liam clears his throat, "Unified theory?"

After a glance between them, Frigga answers, "An attempt, so far unsuccessful, at developing a full theory explaining how magic works, and integrating it with traditional physics. Unfortunately, Imagination is Magic, so the psychology of Imagination adds the complexity of personalities and frankly, Souls, into the equation. Until Mother can solve the mystery of a Soul, that theory will be incomplete."

Joan says, "Which will be useful, if and when she and Mother succeeds, but even without it, our practical limits are few."

"They are?" Liam asks.

"Primarily they are self-imposed, Mr Black. The functional limit is heavily based on how few we are. This we have offset that by making sure that the people who work with us are of the highest quality."

"That's not very specific," Liam remarks in a leading way.

Joan nods, "Of course. Queen Elsa feels that she must bare her soul. I agree with that. But, there is a difference between that and giving away all our secrets."

"Still, Joan," Elsa says as she interrupts, in a fresh voice, "There are things we will reveal. Like, during this time period in Antarctica I used my experience during the war to create the most versatile of my magical items."

She reaches into her dress and pulls out a two-inch wide softly glowing, like a rainbow, Snowflake. "This is a Snowflake." You can hear the Capital letter. "It duplicates many of my basic abilities. The creation and manipulation of Ice. All it takes to use is one's imagination."

Frigga uses Elsa's reentry into the conversation to vanish.

Queen Elsa thinks, ' _Hmmm… What was that phrase that Canute called a Snowflake as he compared it to my powers? Yes. A Yugo compared to a Lamborghini._'

A glance at Liam and Richard. "Do one of you wish to see if you can use it?"

Liam and Richard look at each other. Richard begins to speak, but.

"I will." Liam says as he stands up, shakily.

Elsa nods, "You will need to wear gloves, Liam. For normal people, it is very cold and you will have frostbitten fingers."

He puts his gloves on and Elsa places the snowflake in his cupped palms.

He acts like it is made out of glass, or rather, of very thin, and very breakable, ice.

"Don't worry about hurting it, Liam. The physical force needed to crush it is far beyond anything a human can do without mechanical aid." She smiles, "Just pretend, imagine and think about creating ice."

He points it at the wall of the room. There is a small explosion of ice. Elsa makes sure that neither Liam or Richard are hurt by the flying icy splinters.

He swallows hard and turns white. He gently places it back in Elsa's hands.

"Thank you." He says in a shaky voice. "That was…"

She smiles, gently. "An experience? Everyone that has used one has had a similar thought, Liam."

"Anyone can use it?" Richard asks.

Elsa shrugs, and says in a cryptic voice, "Maybe. There is some if, ands, and buts, though. Joan?"

Joan nods, "A Snowflake is powered by stored magical energy. Elsa is the creator and generator, generally, and recharges the magical battery. Other powerful magic users might be able to recharge it, but there are… call it passwords. There are, also, other protections against unauthorized use."

A smile, "Those first ones had a very small battery life, and a very limited selection of abilities. Now," She glances at the Snowflake in Elsa's hand. "That has the power to recreate her first Blizzard and maintain it for a week. And it is not fully charged."

Elsa looks at the Snowflake in her hand. "I borrowed the idea from a comic book hero I read while in America, called Green Lantern."

"Anything?" Richard asks. "I remember that hero. His ring could do anything."

"Not really," Joan answers, "There are limits. But, like with that hero, your imagination is critical. And, yes, there are a couple deliberate flaws."

Joan thinks, '_I can recharge, somewhat, a Snowflake. Although, doing so, damages it and that will eventually lead to its destruction. It takes Elsa to fully and safely charge one. Eric, Frigga, Elizabeth, and I can recharge one to about half strength. And, that is a reflection on how weak a Snowflake is, not our strength, compared to Mother. Others in the family… about ten percent to a quarter strength. I can, and so can the others, create my version of them, as well. But...they are far, far less than Mother's.'_

She thinks about the Snowflake where her heart would be, if she was human, '_No matter what, though, I will always cherish mine. Which is why I so… dislike Alexander, he treats his as tool, something that can be replaced if broken, not a piece of Mother's Soul, which, for all intents and purposes, it is.'_

Elsa nods and smiles mysteriously. She replaces the Snowflake in her dress...

"During 1946 to early 1948, I stayed in Antarctica healing and growing. I replaced the lost Brekkie, Lovag and Pol." She sighs in sadness, "Mizuki and Yukiko I did not even try: I did try to use the knowledge from their lives. But… the mysteries of giving my children the power to reproduce lives were still beyond me."

Liam asks, "Before you continue, Queen Elsa, will you answer a question about how many of your Snowflakes are there?"

She smiles, "Vaguely. There are less of them than my Icemen. But...creating Snowflakes is far easier than creating life. So, the number of Snowflakes is what I need, not based on any real logistic or magical limit."

Liam nods, his eyes wide with wonder.

"When I reentered the world, the Cold War was on. Njord, while I was in Antarctica, was my man in Europe. He helped General Marshall implement his plan to rebuild Europe. But my absence did cause my children to do very little during that time."

She sighs, "Without a visible power base, I had to use my powers and the fact that some of the leaders of the world knew of them. Unlike before WWI, though, I had to move through very dirty ice."

She smiles, "The official history of Astrid Oaken during this time period is a bit iffy. They are correct that I became a key part of the CIA's spy network. What they don't mention is that at times I was also a key part of the KGB's spy network as well, as I used whatever I needed to do to prevent a nuclear war."

"I used the threat of my abilities to keep the cold war frozen, if you will. From 1948 until 1963, I was the force that prevented that war from becoming hot." She says in a dry voice.

Elsa's face looks disgusted as she says, "Spy stories, grey actions, and frankly horrible things done in the name of peace." She sighs, "but when the alternate is a nuclear war, I did them. Many of my actions during this time, I will not mention, Liam." She finishes in a hard tone.

He grimaces but nods.

"My first, and still one of my favorite, actions was the creation of Radio Free Europe. Others came up with the idea, but I give them a lot of money and helped headhunting people to man it. I knew, from my contacts in Russia that this was an effective tactic. I, also, during the early 1950's reestablished myself in Arendelle. Fearing Atomic bombs, I began to have Asa construct shelters under it."

The ice turns yellow, then red.

A heavy sigh, "The Korean War." A snort. "To me a lesson in climate change. I tried to help the UN forces that first winter, but relearned the lesson that you can not hold back the tide. Correcting that mistake took most of 1951, alone."

She looks at Joan and Herman, "They became involved, of course. And, for the first time, I had to begin to limit their actions."

Joan nods. "We were becoming more powerful and experienced. Finally, we were that war changing unit that Admiral Hall wanted in WWI."

A hard look appears in Queen Elsa's face. "In early 1953, rumors reached me that Stalin was planning on using Atomic bombs in Korea, believing that using them would be limited to the battlefield. That was the final straw."

"On March 1, 1953, I caused the cerebral hemorrhage that killed him." She says in a dead voice.

A satisfied look appears, "Eisenhower and Khrushchev knew my powers and accepted my advice far, far easier than Stalin or Truman ever did. Although Khrushchev always pushed me and tried to bully me."

The ice returns to normal.

She says in a sad voice, "I wish I could say something nice about the effects that the cold war had on developing countries, but I can not. Far too many colonies were effectively dumped overboard, freed and told to rule themselves before they should have been."

A look at the camera, "Proving, many times, about the problems of one man, or one woman, rule."

Herman snorts, "Crazy times. Our orders changed from one minute to the next in some cases."

Joan nods. "Especially in Africa. The Congo in 1960. Larry Devlin was a devil."

Queen Elsa nods as she agrees with her children and says, "There was a potential there. A strong well led Congo would have stabilized the heart of the continent. Failure. Stupid, bloody failure. The aftereffects of which is still haunting Africa." She finishes in a gloomy tone.

Queen Elsa smiles, lightly, "On the other hand, there were successes. The Space Race and its advances in technology was and is important."

A nice smile. "Frigga and I learned a great deal using that race."

A huge smile, "The Antarctica Treaty of 1961 was the highlight of those successes."

She the smile fades, a sigh, "And then there were failures. Especially the Cuban Missile crisis. I had to get into Khrushchev's face and order him to stand down, or face me."

Liam and Richard look at each. But before he can ask a question.

"That action, though, was the last straw against me." She shakes her head.

"Queen Elsa?" Liam asks, "What do you mean?"

"Remember what I said about other magical beings?"

Liam nods.

"I was being too active. So, they ordered me to stop in March 1963."

A twitch of a smile. "I tried to argue. But, they were right, I was being obvious. That action and other reasons, that I will get into in a few minutes, was the beginning of the end of this life and the start of my search for a new life."

"Other reasons?" Liam asks.

Queen Elsa plays with her braid, "My environmental concerns, basically. During this lifetime I traveled the world and saw how much mankind was damaging this world."

A pause as she thinks.

She begins her lecture on the Environment with, "I suppose the first thing I read about environmental concerns was as Queen Elsa in 1862. 'Unto this last' by John Ruskin. One of the many things I read during that lifetime. It was interesting and thoughtful enough that I remember it."

She says in a dry voice, "In 1895, during a visit to London, I supported the reintroduction of some fish species in the river Thames. That was my first pro-environmental action, beyond some rules about forestry I made as Queen Elsa, but those rules was to ensure that there would be a forest to cut and burn in the future, not forward thinking about the environment as a whole. "

A shake of her head. "I did that action in London as part of society, more than out of concern about the river, mind you, but that action is there."

"Talking with Roosevelt about Yellowstone, though, was the first time I really stopped and had to think about the world and what was vanishing and what must be preserved. That discussion with him… was what really convinced me that I was right about him." She finishes with a satisfied smile.

"As I mentioned earlier, that visit to Africa in the early 1930's brought things to a head." A smile, "While I will always enjoy the winter and the north, seeing the tremendous diversity, no, the circle of life there… I made a private pledge then, that I would work to preserve the world."

A snort, "Of course, other things always were more important, so, that goal was, during this time, second or third or lower on my list of things to do."

The ice brightens and glows.

"In 1948, when I returned from Antarctica, I helped with the creation of the World Conservation Union in Gland, Switzerland."

"Still… My growing environmental concerns did in the 50's cause me to start to order Njord to be more careful about what we were investing in. This is when I began, slowly at first, but began to stop owning oil and to clean up my investments."

"After that… In 1957, I began a series of behind the scenes actions that culminated in the Antarctic Treaty which came into force in 1961. That is the first post WWII arms control treaty, and it has provisions to protect her environment."

"A lovely sidelight to this was the fact that I could travel back and forth from Antarctica during this time without comment." A growing, brilliant smile.

The light from the walls is blinding.

A huge smile. "That was one of my greatest successes."

A heavy sigh and Queen Elsa says in a hard voice, "And it was the cancellation of that treaty in 2048, that triggered my current actions."

The light vanishes into darkness for a second, then returns to normal levels.

A brooding silence…as she thinks about her actions…

Liam and Richard share a look. They look at Herman and Joan. Joan raises an eyebrow. Herman smiles.

Liam clears his throat, "Queen Elsa could you provide some details about that meeting with your magical friends?"

She blinks in surprise, she had not expected that question.

A laugh, "They are yelling at you about magic, hmm?"

He nods. "That and religion, which you have avoided mentioning at all."

She sighs, "Religion, I will not get into, now. I will get to it, just not now." She pushes away with her hands, trying to avoid that quagmire.

He nods accepting that statement.

"The meeting in March 1963… Hmmm. What can I say without violating any secrets?" She rubs her chin in thought.

She thinks, '_LIf, Merlin, myself, the Count, The Lord of the West, the Queen of the Elves, The Sphinx of Egypt, Anansi the Spider, Fuqtus the Genie, Rama of India.'_

A grim satisfaction colors her thoughts, '_That was the greatest concentration of power since Suleiman the Magnificent used Fuqtus and the Sphinx to fight Merlin and the Count in 1566. That resulted in chaos, his death and final crippling of both Fuqtus and the Sphinx.''_

She broods _,'if we could work together… we could remake the world. But. Too many past hatreds. Only myself, Lif, Merlin, the Count and the Lord of the West can operate at full power, the rest have been reduced over the years. The Count was never that powerful as a magic user. The Lord of the West focuses on Asia, and his magic, while powerful, is very narrowly focused. Only Merlin and myself are really active with the rest of humanity. That was the problem. I was interfering with Merlin's plans and he used his greater history with the others to stop me.'_

'_The mistakes in the Congo were the final straw for Merlin. We both made them, trying to fix that mess. But… He had the power and the influence.'_

"Queen Elsa?" Liam prompts as she thinks.

A smile, "Just deciding what to say, Liam." She nods at his laptop, "Just as you have your superiors to consider, I have my peers..."

"Touche" Liam nods in sympathy.

A sigh, "I tried to talk them out of it, but they are my peers. Between the mistakes I made during the Cuban Missile crisis and the Congo Crisis they argued that I was failing and I should stop and rethink my methods."

"I wish I could go into more detail, I think the people of the world need to know some things, but I will honor my agreements with my peers."

She smiles sadly. "So, I agreed to withdraw away from the centers of political power. Anyway, I was already considering rethinking my behavior and goals."

She grimaces, "That Cold War's Great Game was very dirty and I wanted to wash my hands and cleanse myself. My disgust at the leaders of the world was almost as bad then as it is today. I was rushing from place to place trying to put out fires before they became firestorms. How can people not think?" She finishes in a frustrated tone.

She closes her eyes, opens them and nods to the camera, "My apologies. I allowed my current disgust to color my comments and that is wrong. I can understand their reasons for their actions, but, true leaders must think beyond the present and plan for the future. And I do not mean tomorrow, or next week, or next year. I mean the next decade, the next generation, the next century." She says in a soft, but heartfelt voice.

A laugh, "Of course, your plans have to flexible: trying to totally plan the future is the sure way to fail. I've learned that over the years."

Queen Elsa says in a calm voice, "I retreated to Antarctica to think and heal. To cleanse myself metaphysically. I decided to get behind the environmental movement, but in ways similar to, but different from, how I helped the peace movement before WWI. To do that I needed a new identity, besides Astrid Oaken was 63 years old and would need to die in a few years away."

A grin and look at the camera, "And before anyone asks, I was in Antarctica when President Kennedy died."

A raised eyebrow, "Although, given the published account of that bullet, though. Somebody with a magic bullet or magic gun did it."

"Beat me to it, again," Liam remarks.

Queen Elsa shrugs, "That was too obvious to count, Liam."

He nods in agreement.

"I tried using my connections with the CIA, at first, but they did not understand it when I said I needed a completely clean id. I tried their id's a couple of times, but then they contacted me, asking, no, truthfully by this time, they were ordering me around. Being treated like that was..." She shakes her head.

"So, I turned to the KGB. I should have done that first, they always were the best at human spying. And they knew how to create an unbreakable id."

Another mysterious smile. "So, as it says in the history books, Astrid Elsa Oaken vanished on March 13, 1964, friday the 13th." A grin, at that joke. "Exactly who killed her and where they dumped her body is, well was, one of the mysteries of the century, like Jimmy Hoffa."

A shake of her head and a purse of her lips, "I was, also, ordered to remove traces of my magic. So, I did, at this time, use my powers to wipe the memories of my powers. I left the knowledge that I was a spy, but everything else I removed."

A deep breath as she says, "With my new identity I returned to royalty. Admittedly, a debased and failed family, so history could be rewritten without notice. The family was already under the KGB's control, due to mistakes the head of the family made in the 1940's when he worked for the SS."

A sad smile.

Then a happy one. "The final last laugh at history."

Queen Elsa's face changes. Her clothes change into something that looks like an old style uniform. When she finished she looks like a sister to Prince Hans of the Southern Isles might look.

"My new identity. Kristen Elsa Westergaard.".

End Astrid Elsa Oaken.

* * *

Next chapter: Elsa's Children chapter 1

A long look at what her children are doing while she is talking.

And, for those wanting action. You will have it.

I introduce Herja the Pawn and Risi the Rook from Ragnhild's team.

Along with...

Thank you for reading.

jeff


	12. Chapter 11 Elsa's Children 1

Chapter: Elsa's Children 1

A look at what else is happening around the world.

Thank you to ptahaegyptus2 for your support and Beta.

Also: I do have another story called Elsa: The Early Days. Which is this story, but starting from day one. The end of the movie Frozen at the Ice Rink.

* * *

Karachi, Pakistan

Towards the end of Elsa's Interview.

The local headquarters of Fractal.

"Look Mr. Yngling," Mark Smith, the head of security in Karachi is talking to Risi Yngling, the new troubleshooter from Tyr security, "I know I've been ordered to follow your lead, but..." He points to a TV showing Queen Elsa's interview. "That is going to cause trouble, now, and your instructions."

Risi nods, "I know that my instructions sound strange." He is a large Nordic looking man with high and tight short blond hair.

"They are impossible, sir! My team has trained to guard this building for months, and you are changing those plans on a moments notice. That will cause problems." Mark complains.

Risi opens his mouth, then closes it. "You are correct. Very well. You must have a plan in which your people guard, primarily, one side or the other of this complex, correct?"

"Yes, but that still leaves a skeleton team watching the other side." Mark replies.

Risi says, "OK. Go with that plan. Just leave the front to me."

"Sir." Mark stresses. "I don't care how big you are, one man can not hold the front, especially with that mob in place and it is growing."

Risi smiles as he stretches out. He is 6 foot 6 inches and weighs close to 300 lbs. "You haven't seen me in action."

A pause as they can hear the chanting and yelling as the crowd outside the gates builds.

Risi states, "That is one of Aga Khan's flash mobs. There'll be some guns and they will attack sooner or later. Do not worry. He will be out of the picture soon."

"HOW?"

A smile. "Devastation is visiting."

* * *

Elsewhere in Karachi

The headquarters of a very militant, very violent terror group headed by a man known only as Aga Khan.

A smallish underground room that six men, tables and chairs almost fill. There are no windows and only one door. The walls are concrete, the door is steel. There are connections to the outside for the computers and laptops of course.

Queen Elsa is on a TV in the background, but nobody is paying attention to her.

Aga Khan and his chief lieutenants are meeting and planning operations. "You have ordered a flash mob against Fractal?" Aga Khan asks his Intelligence chief.

The Intelligence chief nods and taps his laptop. "Yes, sir. Hundreds are there now, thousands will be there in a few hours."

Aga Khan turns to his Chief of Operations, "You have a team going there as well?"

The Chief replies, "Yes sir. There about 30 fighters on the way. Rifles and RPG's. They will back up the crowd and kept the guards down as the crowd assaults the place. One hundred more are on their way from the camp outside the city, with heavy truck mounted weapons. Given the road conditions, it will take some time before they get there, though."

His assistant adds helpfully, "Those are part of the old guard. Plenty of experience."

Aga Khan smiles, "Good. It is time to destroy that… hated building."

His propaganda chief remarks, "I've already have a new version of your speech about Fractal interfering with tradition as they pretend to fix environmental issues while they established and funded girls schools."

Aga Khan nods, "A good start, though, I feel new ideas coming." He smiles, "Great ideas!"

The Treasurer nods, "The money is there." A smile, "New donations are already showing up."

Everyone smiles: having money makes their task easier.

The door opens and a woman wearing a burka comes into the room. She closes the door... after taking a longer than normal time to do that. Not that the men in the room notice.

She is carrying a carafe full of tea and glasses. They men ignore her as she circles the room.

"Do you have anything more on that witch?" Aga Khan points to the TV as he asks his Intel Chief that question.

The Intel Chief shakes his head, "Just what she says. I'm sure that I'll have more in a few hours. I just don't know where to look, yet."

The woman in the burka slides the tray onto the table, and sits on the table. She rips the head of her burka off.

"You just have to ask me." The ice teeth sparkles against her snowy face, long snowy hair flows behind her.

"My name is Herja. I am Ragnhild's Pawn."

"What!?" "WITCH!" "Whore!" "Sorceress!" "Koos!" "Bitch!" The men scream at her. All the men in the room stand up and start to pull weapons.

She hisses a spell. '_Magic spell 101. Something to put people asleep._' She thinks.

They collapse...asleep.

* * *

Later.

The men wake up at the same time. They are not tied up, but they can only move their heads and can talk… nothing else works. Although, with their mouths covered by tape, they can not speak, yet.

Herja thinks, '_Combat medical spell. Paralysis. You don't want wounded people to thrash around.'_

There are people pounding on the door, but the metal door is magically welded shut to the concrete walls. '_Basic construction spell._' She thinks.

A camera is on the table, Herja will swivel it around as needed.

"This is a statement by Ragnhild, Elsa's Daughter." Herja begins.

'_By sending that flash mob, and by what I heard as I waited outside, they were moving to attack our people. That frees me to counter-attack, as planned._' She grins.

She thinks, "_This will also send the message to all the other terror groups in a language they understand: Violence. Not quite what Mother expected, but these kinds of people never paid attention to women's warnings and cautions. We'd have had to do this sooner or later._"

She points the camera to the Operational Chief's assistant. Herja moves around a laptop showing a video of an European woman being beaten, raped and killed. "Agethe was a Fractal employee. You did that. She got lost in Karachi airport just trying to find a restroom."

She rips the tape off his mouth. "Do you have anything to say before I kill you?"

"She was a whore! Just like you, bitch!" Spit flies from his mouth as he screams.

"So you admit to doing that crime." She points to the screen.

"She was a criminal. I was treating her as my laws demand!"

"You should read history." She smiles, "In India, Sati, the burning of widows was common. General Napier said it best: 'So be it. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.'"

"My customs say that is assault, rape and murder. Queen Elsa is normally merciful. But there are limits." She snaps her fingers.

She thinks, '_Basic ice spell 101.'_

The Assistant Chief of Operations slumps over, dead of a frozen heart. "She was merciful, by the way. You died much easier than I would have liked." She says to the dead body.

She turns to the treasurer and rips off his tape.

"Please, I beg you!" He begins to cry. "Don't kill me! I just handle the money."

She nods. "Sure. I have no plans to kill you. Making sure that I destroy your life, yes. Killing you, no."

She inserts a thumb drive into the treasurer's laptop. "The programs on that will shift all the money in the accounts around the world. Basically, a thousand US dollars transferred into random accounts, until your accounts are dry. I'm sure that you can get the money back, but that will take time. It will also post on the web the names and addresses, and all the details, about your donors. They will be very visible to any intelligence agency."

A grin, "Although, after that, it will wipe your drive." She shrugs, "Oh, I suppose you can recover something. But that, again, will take time."

She looks at his hands, "Still your hands are not clean, you knew what your friends were doing with that money."

"No. Please." He begs, whimpering.

A snap of her fingers. His hands turn white. He screams and collapses..

"You should visit a doctor to remove those 4th degree frostbitten and frozen hands." She smiles, "Too bad your version of Islam prevents you from getting prosthetic hands."

The Intelligence chief is next.

"You witch. You and your evil goddess will die, no matter what you do to us." He states.

"Everything dies." She says. "I'm not planning on dying today, though. Nor am I planning to kill you."

"I will have my revenge." He growls.

"You were the person that located and blackmailed that airport security guard and had him place the bomb on flight 548. Almost 300 people died when that plane fell from the skies." A hard glance, "Including a pen pal of mine."

He does nothing but glare at her.

She plugs a drive into his laptop. "This will dump everything on this laptop on the net. It will use your connections to gather and dump more info on the web. I'm sure that the various intelligence agencies will find that info useful. It will not wipe your drive, since everything on it will soon be available everywhere."

He grinds his teeth. "And what evil are you going to do to me?" He spits out.

She touches his forehead. He screams and slumps unconscious. "I wonder if he will remember anything when he wakes up. I turned off the part of his brain that controls his raw intelligence. He, who was oh so proud of his intelligence, will spend the rest of his life as a drooling idiot." She smiles at Aga Khan. He is purple as he chews at the tape.

"What are you going to do to me?" The propaganda chief asks in a calm voice next.

"Oh, beyond dumping all your data on the web? I just thought that posting your private videos on the web would be useful. You know, the ones that have you and your boyfriend having sex. A pity that you are so vocal in your statements against homosexuality, but... "

His mouth opens. He then cries out, "Lies! I never!" He screams and slumps down out cold..

"Fourth degree frozen balls." She hisses. "Be grateful that Queen Elsa has forbidden me from rewriting your brain. But, she does have something else in mind."

"I am still a Captain in the Pakistani army. You can not hurt me without creating an international incident. And if you are that foolish, my family will hunt you down." The Chief of Operations growls in desperation. No one was ever supposed to attack him. Especially not this way. He did this to others, to see it being done to him as him, has him very frightened... He tries to threaten with, "You do know who they are."

She nods to him. "Yep. Especially that uncle of yours who is a General in the Pakistani Army."

She looks at the camera, "Killing you would be easy, General. Your security sucks. And as far as an incident goes…"

She looks back the Chief of Operations, "I am sure that paperwork showing that you are not, currently, in the army will appear. The Pakistani army will try to hide it's involvement in terrorism." She shrugs. "Like we care. We will act on our knowledge. Shit happens in war."

She stands over him, "Queen Elsa wanted me to kill you, like I did him." She points to the dead man. "But, I talked her out of that. You will live."

She speaks a spell. '_Permanency on the paralysis spell is hard, but useful._' She thinks.

He slumps, not unconscious, he just can not move a muscle.

She places him on the table and props him up, so he does not drown in his own fluids.

She glances at Aga Khan, "When I leave you should get him to a hospital pretty quickly. He can not move a muscle. Nothing voluntary." A hard smile, "His mind is trapped inside a body that he can never move, for the rest of his life. I wonder how long before he goes insane?"

She stands in front of Aga Khan, "Now you." She rips the tape off his mouth, pulling some his mustache and beard off in the process.

"My death will launch waves of suicide bombers in vengeance." He proclaims.

She nods. "Of course. Your power would grow as a martyr. So, you will not die. Queen Elsa's goal is to prevent you from having the power to create, plan and sending out more bombers. Not giving you power after death."

"Even if you harm me, those bombers will happen." He is very sure of that.

Herja nods, again. "Nope. No harm either."

She smiles, a hard tight smile.

He growls at her, but does not say a word.

She lets him stew as she goes around to the living men. She shows an ice crystal between her fingers and she touches the crystal to each man's forehead. The crystal vanishes at the touch.

"What are you doing, Sorceress?" Aga Khan growls as she approaches him.

"Oh, this?" She shows him an ice crystal. She touches his forehead.

His jaws and neck flex as he refuses to scream at the painfully icy touch.

"That crystal allows us to watch you. We will know where you are, who you are talking to, what you are doing. Everything." She smiles.

"You can still preach hate. But, there are many people out there preaching hate. You can still inspire people. But, there are many people out there inspiring people."

A look at the camera. "But how can you use your great personal charisma when we will know everyone that you meet? How can use your highly trained organizational skills to create a secret terrorist group, when we will know your every move?" She smiles.

"Oh, I'm sure that are ways for you to do something." She shrugs, "But… who knows what else the crystal might do?"

Another smile, an evil one. "Perhaps it can read your mind. Perhaps we can give you visions?"

She leans over him and says in a soft voice, "How will you know what is reality and what is fantasy?"

Aga Khan is white from fear.

She thinks, '_That was theatre for the camera. I took flesh samples from all of them before I woke them up. Using those DNA samples and Voodoo based magic, though, we can do everything I said.'_

She approaches the door.

A look back at Aga Khan and she says in a happy voice, "Oh, you will tell your men about that crystal I placed in their brains, right?"

A hiss of a spell. The pounding on the door stops. A touch of the door and the spell sealing the room fades.

She opens the door. Everyone outside the door is asleep. "Be grateful, scum, I do not have time to deal with you."

A snap of her fingers, "But, unmanning you, as I just froze your balls is possible." She walks away.

When she turns the corner, she vanishes.

'_Invisibility. Can't leave home without it.' _She thinks.

The camera is still transmitting everything to Frigga for distribution on the web.

* * *

Fractal Office in Karachi

The office tower and surrounding area are huge, many acres in area. There is a twelve-foot tall concrete wall with three feet of barbed wire on top surrounding it. Twenty feet inside that wall is an eight foot tall wire fence with barbed wire on it. Then there is fifty feet of grass-covered lawn before you reach the nearest building.

The front gate is steel with reinforcements. The concrete walling the drive is slanted to deflect blast waves. There are two hairpin turns in the driveway, to slow traffic into the complex. There are checkpoints for traffic control at the gate, but they are empty.

The front gate is rocking as the crowd uses makeshift battering rams to break it down. Ladders are starting to appear in the crowd.

Risi stands at the front door. Mark is standing next to him, watching him and the front gate.

Next to Risi is a huge 10 foot long box. In it is a large refrigerator or something similar. It took a forklift to move it, earlier. The label on the box says: Experimental Railgun.

Mark points at the box. "That is useless. Even if we had a generator that would power it, that is a vehicle mounted weapon."

Risi waves him off, "Don't worry. It has its own battery built-in."

Mark eyes widen, "No. Fucking. Way."

Risi places his hand on the box. It unlocks and opens up. Inside is a complex piece of metal and plastic that looks like a very high-tech, very large gun.

He touches it. The Illusion fades. The mechanical gun vanishes and turns into ice. It still looks like a gun, but made of ice. There are metal bits and pieces mixed in with the ice

Mark's eyes widen as he first looks at it, then at Risi.

Risi removes his Illusion. His white icy face is showing.

He grins. "Now, you understand, Mark?"

Mark nods. People, who have watching their security boss and the new guy, begin to rush over. A lot of phones are out, taking pictures and posting video to the web.

His removes his normal human clothes and unzips his cool suit, then removing it. '_It is hot here in Karachi, but Herja has fully protected me against the heat for hours._' He thinks.

"Stand back," He orders Mark and the crowd of Fractal employees that have gathered around.

They move back.

Risi takes a deep breath and grows. '_My innate power as a Rook. I can grow to any size I wish.' _He thinks. '_Mother wanted to show that Giants are good guys, not the evil ones from the myths. Now, we'll see if she was right.'_

He stops growing when he is twenty feet tall. He reaches down and picks up the ice weapon. This is his personal weapon.

"AHhh.. Fuck." Someone says in an awed tone.

"He definitely believes in having the biggest gun."

Risi glances back, "It's not how big, but how well you use it." He grins as shifts the Gun.

Laughs from the crowd.

'_Ragnhild prefers to use her natural abilities, or she'd use something similar._' He thinks.

The weapon is nine feet long. It looks similar a large-caliber sniper rifle, but with the magazine on top of the gun, rather than under the weapon. The magazine is very long and broken into two different sized magazines. One is long, over a foot, the other looks normal sized. The ice is clear and you can see that both magazines are full of what looks like metal arrows, of different sizes. (If you want a visual: look up the Lahti L-39 anti-tank rifle from WWII, just 50% bigger.)

"Just kept an eye open for snipers, if you would. I will cover the front gate." He orders as he begins to touch various parts of the gun. The weapon begins to glow, lights move under the ice, as it powers up. He takes an icy wire from the gun and places it in his skull.

The gate.

POUND.

Then silence.

"There is a guy with a RPG! They are making a hole!" Someone yells! "The guys with the ladders are rushing the wall!"

Risi grins.

The gate explodes.

The crowd pushes open the gate, only to be stopped, at least for a few seconds, by the wire fencing inside Fractal's grounds.

RIsi thinks, '_They are on Fractal's grounds and they are obviously hell-bent on killing us. So I can now protect my people.'_

Risi fires into the crowd.

His weapon is a railgun that accelerates Ice. Ice forms at the rear of the weapon and then is accelerated as it passes through the barrel, which transforms in size depending on what it is firing. Since the ice is magically made, and the gun is powered by magic, it has effectively unlimited ammunition as long as the magic battery holds out.

That battery is based on an earlier, simpler design of Elsa's snowflakes, but this battery is even more simplified, allowing for just about any magic user to recharge it. It is designed to only power the spells built into the weapon: removing it would make both the weapon and itself useless. The major drawback of the weapon is recharging time, which is longer than its creators would like. They solved it by having a dual battery system: while one is powering the weapon, the other can be recharged.

It helps a lot if Ragnhild or some other more powerful member of the family is nearby. They can keep the weapon continually charged.

The size and shape of the ice it fires is variable, based on what Risi is thinking, transmitted by that ice wire. He aims the weapon via that wire as well. There is a small magic mirror built into the end of the barrel. He can aim the weapon, without having to raise it to his face, which, with his hulking strength to control recoil, allows accurate fire from the hip. The magic mirror also helps him see infrared and reflected laser light, as well as other optical tricks.

The Railgun is very rapidly firing low-speed fist-sized snowballs. When they hit, they feel like a punch from a pro-heavyweight fighter. Most people are knocked down with bruises. Some will suffer from broken bones. Deaths are rare, basically from falling on concrete and shattering their skulls.

As the front wave collapses from the snowball assault, he aims at the ladders leaning over the fence and clears them as well.

People from the back begin to shoot at him. He can feel the bullets hit him, but they do not really damage him. There is something good to be said about simply being huge. A spell protects the Railgun against bullets. Placing that spell on a more variable shaped entity, like a size changing Rook, would confuse and collapse the spell.

Then, he shifts the gun and changes what it is firing.

The Railgun is now firing three round bursts lasting only a tenth of a second. It is shooting thin slivers of ice at 3,000 yards a second. Against unarmored opponents, each one is similar to a bullet. Friction should melt the sliver before it punctures anyone, but the magic in the barrel delays the heat of friction affecting the sliver for that first tenth of a second.

So, after 300 yards the sliver of ice vaporizes, harmlessly. If it hits something, it vaporizes as well. No bullets in the wound. Just steam or plain water.

Risi is aiming at the legs or arms of people carrying weapons. However, because there are a lot of people in motion, fatal accidents will likely happen.

"Sniper!" Mark yells, using a laser pointer to highlight the location.

On the roof of one of the surrounding buildings, people are moving about.

The magical mirror enables Risi to pick up the beam. He points the Railgun at the roof and changes the rounds again.

The normal sized magazine holds two hundred fin stabilized tungsten carbide penetrator flechettes: each is two-inches long and a quarter-inch in diameter. Ice forms around one and the rod is accelerated to a muzzle velocity of 6,000 yards a second. The ice vaporizes after 600 yards, but the rod is still moving at 6,000 yards a second. There is an attachment that allows him to use the belted ammo still in the box. There are 2,000 rounds in that if he needs it. He won't today.

The sound when one of the rods leave the barrel is hugely loud, making the dust dance on the ground.

It can penetrate light to medium armor, or in this case, the concrete and steel roof of a building. Three hits destroy the sniper position.

"Tank!" Another person yells.

Risi is big enough to see over the wall and can see the armored vehicle, not a real tank, but an old Indian army Kestrel 8X8 wheeled armored fighting vehicle, as it turns the corner. It has an old, but still usable 25 or 30mm auto cannon on it..

He switches the Gun again, this time to full-sized armor-piercing fin stabilized penetrator rods. There are only six in the long magazine, but an additional 18 rounds are in the box. Each rod is one foot long and one half-inch diameter. Those rods can have individual spells on them that can give them even more special effects.

He will have to lean into the weapon, otherwise the recoil of this shot would knock him back on his butt.

He thinks, '_Frigga has a spell that cancels Newton's third law, which would stop the recoil, but her current version of that spell is still too power hungry for the small battery in this Gun.' _

The people around him sense what's coming and hit the ground, covering their ears in anticipation. The ground around him shakes when he fires.

The armored vehicle vanishes when the penetrator hits it with a deafening KA-BOOM!

Some of the small fragments will land miles away.

'_That one was a safety round. It disintegrates after it hits something, so the rod does not continue to travel for miles.' _He thinks, '_But useful when shooting down a line of them.' _A glance at the buildings, '_Or if we have to destroy the buildings around us.'_

The crowd has disappeared when he looks at the gate. Only a bunch of people, unconscious and moaning, are on the ground.

He points the Railgun to the sky. He smiles as he sees the helicopter overhead beating a hasty retreat. Even the small penetrator flechette would bring that down.

"Go ahead and help them." He orders. "I think that will discourage them for the day."

Mark gulps, "They will be back."

Risi nods. "Good. That's the plan."

"Can you…" Mark begins to ask

Risi looks around, he shrugs. "It would be helpful if this info isn't spread around."

The people around him take the hint and turn off their phones and other devices.

He looks over the crowd. "Just to make it clear. From now on, this is a volunteer only operation. Helicopters will be here soon to land additional troops and to take away anyone that wishes it. No questions will be asked, nor will it harm your careers, at as far as Fractal is concerned. I have Fractal's CEO statement about that on me, if there are any questions."

A buzz spreads among the crowd.

Risi thinks, '_Not that we expect many to take that offer, Fractal's and Tyr's personnel here been screened and have their own reasons to stay. Being able to fight back…will be more attractive for them.'_

"Queen Elsa has a problem: Islamic and other religious fanatics will attack her. Nothing she can say can change that. She must defeat them, quickly and without question." Risi states.

"A decisive battle must occur and it must occur quickly. Only after we have allowed a large attack, and have decisively defeated it, can Queen Elsa's other plans have a chance to work."

At Mark's startled glance toward the gate, Risi beckons to it and adds, "THIS was only a skirmish."

"So we will plant our flag here in their territory and invite them to attack us." He looks around. "It MUST be a large battle, here in the open, not many small battles hidden among the mountains, where people around the world can see it, so that when we win, the steam will be taken out of the fanatics."

Mark clears his throat, "Sir, that will cause massive PR and physical damage to the city." He waves his hand at the surrounding buildings. Even the small battle has left scars, mainly from the Kestrel exploding.

"And it will cause a lot of deaths." Risi nods in agreement, "but this is war, not a police action. Nor is it a limited war, Queen Elsa is fighting for the world. There is no way to disguise war, nor make it pretty. We will do what we can to limit the PR effects, but in the end, winning the war will allow us to fix that problem."

He grins, "I read this online once, 1945- Victory was declared when the enemy was dead and all his things were broken. Now- Victory is declared when the enemy says he is sorry. We are fighting by the rules of 1945."

A hungry growl from the crowd. They are sick and tired of always doing things they considered to be done the wrong way.

He pauses, "By decisively defeating her enemies here, she hopes that others will be...persuaded... to deal peacefully with her. She believes this is a way to give her the opening she needs to get her other plans started."

He looks around, "She has other plans that will also, she hopes, give her that opening. If one of them succeeds, we can stand down and help rebuild Karachi."

Mark guesses, "So… Terrorists from around the world will come here… They will attack, and be defeated." His eyes sharpen. "To make this a large battle, you will need regular army troops, not just paramilitary terrorist forces attacking."

Risi nods. "The Pakistani Army is splintered. The Generals and the President were almost at the point of civil war before today. They will attack piecemeal and be destroyed."

"What about attacks on other Fractal offices?" One of the other people nearby asks. "Terrorists don't attack hard targets."

Risi agrees, "Most will be closed, especially in really vulnerable positions. We will protect the others."

His lips quirk, "Hopefully we can limit the damage from those attacks. But we will crush anyone attacking those positions, totally. Here… well. We'll have to leave some still alive to organize the new arrivals."

'_Frigga's hacks on the web will emphasize Karachi, though. People and money for attacking us in Karachi will go through without a problem. Once she spots people and money going to attack somewhere else… Other teams will be notified and given orders to stop them_.' He thinks. '_Like Herja did today_.'

Mark eyes harden, "To be decisive, though, it must a large organized attack."

"Iran's most likely next. They should join with the other Islamic nations and attack us in mass, but that is not likely since they are guarding their borders against their fellow Islamics. Their first attacks will be small, and so easily destroyed." He says as he nods.

Risi shrugs, "The others, even though they are nearby, have no real amphibious capabilities, so they will have to move overland through Iran to get to us. Long, long supply lines to hit."

"India?"

"Why risk war when others will attack?" Risi laughs, "Once we defeat the first couple of attacks, they might even join us, or at least give us some behind the scenes help. Like we hope other first world countries will do. These terrorists have cultivated a lot of hate, so destroying them will give us some good will."

Mark nods. "Eventually."

Risi smiles, "Eventually, Pakistan will call in their ally China. China will send armies overland and its Aircraft carriers and an amphibious force in a coordinated attack. That will be the decisive battle."

He sees the startled looks on the faces of the people around him and adds, "Don't worry, that is months in the future. It will take weeks just to go through enough terrorists, for the Pakistani army to act, and months for the others, at best."

"You need an air force and a navy to do all that." Mark frowns in thought. "Tyr does not have that many planes and they are supply, not combat. Same with the ships."

"Who said we were going to use Tyr?" Risi asks, then falls silent. He bends his head, listening to something.

"The Helos are here." He states.

"Where? I don't see anything?" "What? The sky is empty!" "I can't hear them!" People look into the sky and ask questions.

A blur in the sky. It fades. The invisibility spell is off, temporarily.

A dozen helicopters from Tyr Security appear. There are freighters in the Arabian Sea that they are using for bases.

They start to land. A couple of more Icemen jump off them. Reinforcements. More of Ragnhild's team is here.

Risi waves to people he knows. He waves to Icemen and some of the normal soldiers. Most wave back at him.

Risi, though, looks higher in the sky.

'_An air force.' _He thinks, '_An Icicle is above us. We are protected._'

He grimaces, '_We are not as well protected as Arendelle or Troll are. An Icicle, though, will protect us against anything likely to be sent against us. What might be sent against them… Demands the best. Something that can stop anything. Anything.'_

60,000 feet above

A one hundred foot long, ten foot thick icicle spike, with short thin wings and tail rudder, floats, hidden with invisibility. It looks, at first glance, like old F-104 Starfighter, even if it is twice the size.

Frigga and her team, especially Carl and his human avionics group, have worked long and hard on developing the Icicle. It is a mix of magic and technology.

It is flown by a snowman using telepathy rather than mechanics. Their training starts with them being morphed into birds of prey, so they learn to fly and fight in the air against each other. Then comes the simulator training...direct mind to mind learning from Ragnhild, the world's most experienced fighter pilot. Then comes real life practice over the icecap of Antarctica, with more mind to mind discussions about tactics.

Its engine is a low power version of Queen Elsa's quantum magic generator. At the back of the Icicle, buried in the ice, is something that looks like a broom mated with jet engines. The 25 foot metal staff has four six-foot jet-looking pods surrounding it.

The witches that developed the basic spell for flying would not recognize Frigga's, or more accurately, Carl's version of the spell. Air flows through the pods and provides the thrust. It can hover and maneuver like a hummingbird or….hit a Maximum speed of mach 5. Its service ceiling is 100,000 feet. If needed, it can be halfway around the world in 4 hours.

The ice is protected by a spell that totally prevents friction, so there is no frictional heating. Another spell alters the shock wave when traveling at high speeds, shifting the heat of the shock wave to behind the Icicle. There are other heat reducing spells on the Icicle.

Since those spells are crafted to the exact size and shape of an Icicle, they can be much stronger than when placed on an Iceman. Those spells are weaker and more unstable due to having to adjust to the varying shape and weight of the ice and snow of a living Iceman

It is armed with the Railgun that Risi was using, with 4,000 small flechettes and 50 large penetrators. Plus there are hardpoints to handle more traditional, purely mechanical bombs and other ordnance. Those points are empty, now. The metal wires, computers and other devices needed to use them can be seen in the ice.

The main weapon, however, is an ice generator. It is an Area of Effect weapon, projecting a 30 foot diameter cone of cold at minus 200 degrees. Capable of freezing any plane out the sky. Or, if used against the ground, it will destroy...many things.

The spell that the weapon is based on is the innate ability Queen Elsa gave Joan and Elizabeth.

Modified Magic Mirrors give it radar-like ability, without the very detectable radar waves. They also allow communication without radio waves. Between the invisibility spell and its magical communication and radar, it is undetectable.

Well… basically. When traveling at high-speed the massive shock wave it generates can be detected and tracked. But once it slows down to sub-supersonic speeds, the ability to track it...vanishes.

This one traveled up from Antarctica slowly and carefully at 80,000 feet.

Anyone threatening those freighters, or Fractal's office in Karachi, will be stopped.

* * *

The Fractal freighters in the Arabian Sea. Approx. 22 degrees by 65 degrees..

Ragnhild's Bishop, Kara leans against the rail watching the sea.

Her senses are hearing the sounds of the ocean below her. Spells first developed by Frigga in WWI, when she helped develop ASDIC, assist her senses. She can hear the other ships in the sea, and the submarines under the sea, even, if they're close enough, the quiet American ones.

'_My personal spells are water based. If anyone can protect this convoy, it is me_.' She thinks.

Her Snowflake is fully charged. '_You don't need any of the more specialized and limited devices, like Icicles, if you have one of these. It can do almost anything.' _

She smiles as she watches dolphins play. '_I wish I could swim with them. I have always liked the sea._'

Anything approaching on or under the sea, will be heard or seen and stopped.

* * *

Scene Antarctica. -70 degrees by 11 degrees.

Queen Maude's land. The seacoast.

A wall of ice that stretches for miles, the waves of the Antarctic Ocean lapping at its feet.

Then part of the wall fades away. Something moves under the ice.

Something huge.

An Iceberg? moves away from the surrounding wall of ice.

No, an iceberg would be ragged: the smooth lines indicate that this is artificial.

It is a ship, a very large ship.

Today begins her combat trials.

The ship is at least 2,200 feet long, 300 feet wide and at least 200 feet high. More than 2,000,000 tons of ice are in motion.

The top deck is basically flat. There are lines and such on it for planes to land.

Buried deep in it is one of Queen Elsa full powered quantum magical energy generator. Its power output is measured in many Gigawatts. The backup generator is just as strong.

The aircraft carrier part can support dozens of planes. There are three Icicles being moved around. They are beginning Carrier Training today. Given that Icicles can hover, normal carrier training will have to be modified.

There are 7 man-made modern helicopters and a couple normal short-field landable transport planes on deck as well. More, no doubt, are below.

There are four 60 feet long Railguns are mounted in individual turrets. These are true Mass Drivers, able to accelerate a 50 pound round to 12,000 yards per second, basically Earth's escape velocity. They can hit orbital targets. By using sub-orbital speeds and magical targeting, they can hit, within a yard, targets on the other side of the world. Even ICBM's are vulnerable to the Railguns while in flight.

The cold generators can freeze anything within sight, such as missiles.

The 40 foot thick hull is magically strengthened. Not that it matters all that much: Since ice floats, torpedoes and missiles or much else, for that matter, would not be all that effective.

There are places cut out of the hull. Places for smaller ships to use. Maybe exits for assault transports? Maybe something else?

Who knows what might be hidden in its massive cargo spaces?

Heat and fire? That is what that spare generator is powering, spells to prevent and limit heat and fire, as well as more powerful spells to keep the ship frozen.

Android-Ice golems do most of the daily maintenance. Magical ice golems, non-living creatures, with computer support to give them a wide range of programming and features. Very similar to the still fictional fully functional androids. With a nod to the fictional androids that inspired Krol in his designs and coding, many of them look like androids from various movies, anywhere from 1927's Metropolis to the newest movie of the Star Wars Franchise..

With that support, the number of snowmen necessary to run the ship...is very low. The pilots and support personnel for the Icicles and other vehicles under the deck occupy more snowmen than the ship's crew. There are many normal humans in the crew as well. Some of the pilots of the Icicles are human as well.

The ship is named CLASSIFIED. note: I do have a name in mind. but. I will allow you the readers to convince me that their name choice makes sense. Please not Anna.

Marshmallow stands at the bridge. He is in charge.

Two years ago, Fractal announced that with the cancellation of the Antarctic treaty, that it would build ships based on the WWII proposal called Habakkuk. A plan to create aircraft carriers out of sawdust mixed with Ice. That WWII plan called for it to be armed with 40 dual mounted 5 inch cannons and up to 150 fighter-bombers and fighters.

They have been building and recruiting people since then. If there is no war, then that huge ship will be rebuilt into a massive freighter, those plans are ready.

The world dismissed that press release as an april's fool joke, since it was released on that April 1, 2048.

Queen Elsa is waiting: sooner or later, her carrier will be revealed. She has a prepared statement for the US Navy, which rejected her plan for that carrier over a hundred years ago. She will enjoy the reaction to that statement: whether or not the US Navy's admirals will...she doesn't think so.

Queen Elsa's Children are preparing for war.

* * *

A scene about Tyr Security and how it works.

* * *

Ten years ago, Near Khost, Afghanistan.

Abdul Qasim, a 17 year young man, a smallish person well under 6 feet, with dark hair and skin color, waits outside the building that Tyr Security has rented for the last couple of weeks. They are recruiting and he has applied. Today is his interview.

'_I have to get away. There is nothing here for me. If I can not join Tyr, then, sooner or later, one of the militia's will grab me and shove an AK in my hands and send me to fight_.' He thinks. "_And I will die, buried in some nameless place, after fighting in a useless and forgotten skirmish._'

The door opens and a large European man waves him inside and directs him to small room. There is a table and a couple of chairs in the room. The table has a dozen or so different magazine-like publications on it.

"Just sit down and read something, kid." The man says in accented Pashto. "The recruiter will be here in a few minutes."

In the next room, watching him from a discreet webcam is a couple of people. Having a mirror in the room, means that people will know that they are being watched. A small bump in a wall full of bumps, though… You get to see how people really act, if they are not being watched.

"A good kid?" One of the people in the room asks.

The other, looking at a laptop, says, "Good school records. Nice English scores, so we don't have to worry about that. Frigga's algorithms indicate that he did not show his full potential, though."

"Afraid of being different?"

A nod. "Probably."

"He's been playing football against our hearts and minds team. Scored a couple of times, even. Good athlete, nice reflexes and such."

A smile. "He is not choosing to read the Jihadist rag that I placed on the table."

A grunt. "He is reading the Tyr security promo mag. Good kid."

"It will be interesting to see how he reacts to me."

A couple of minutes later, as they give him time to read through the entire magazine, the door opens.

A female member of Tyr security enters the room.

His eyes widen. '_Damn. What should I do? What do they do in the American movies?'_

Abdul gulps, but, after a couple of seconds, he does rise.

"Sit down, Abdul Qasim." She orders, "My name is Margaret Bjork."

She waits for his reaction.

He says, "Yes, Ma'am." As his sits down.

Margaret hides a smile. He just passed a very important test. He treated her politely. She looks down at the list of questions, and thinks, '_as long as he doesn't screw up, I think we have a winner_.'

One of the Questions/Answers….

"You work at your uncle's car garage, repairing cars?"

He nods.

"Like it there?"

He licks his lips, '_how do I answer that?'_

A pause, a long one.

"Stuck, huh. How about this, then. Since you want to leave here, you must have a reason. I will assume that you are a good repairman, that cars you work on are fixed, correctly, the first time. And you do it much faster than the others do."

His eyes open wide and surprised, he spits out, "How did you know that? They beat me. I make them work harder than they feel they should. I know things that they don't care about. How?"

"Simple, Abdul, we asked around. Money talks. Your uncle's garage is the best place in town, but only after you started working there last year."

His mouth gapes open.

Later

She smiles. "Thank you, Abdul. A good interview. No matter what, I think we can help you."

He smiles.

She quickly looks down rearranging paperwork, before the tears in her eyes can be seen. It gives him a chance to hide his own.

* * *

Boot camp. Somewhere in the Canadian Rockies.

"You are scum. We will break you down. We will rebuild you into soldiers. IF you ever think that you can not make it. Tell us. You are free to go. You will given a nice severance package. WE only want people who want to be the best." The Drill Instructor, a long time DI hired from the US Marines, looks like he can fight the entire training platoon and win, easily. Which he can, and demonstrates it, later.

The instructors for the training come from around the world, with only the best being headhunted and recruited. Normally this is based on survival rates in combat, but other factors do come into play.

Given Queen Elsa's background, Norwegian and Swedish instructors tend to have an advantage. Also, the Icemen's past history with British Intelligence, give British or Commonwealth instructors an edge. Even with those edges, though, US instructors are most common, their troops simply have the most experience, so the survival rates can be measured and compared.

Of course, some of the best instructors are Elsa's Icemen. They have been around since WWI and that experience shows. One team is always being cycled through the system on a yearly basis, as special instructors.

A while later.

"There are thousands of rules of war. You will learn them. Some of my favorites are:" The DI screams at his men.

"We make war that we may live in peace." _Aristotle._

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace." _George Washington._

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." _George Orwell._

"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others."_Niccolo Machiavelli_

"The art of war is simple enough. Find out where the enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving." _Ulysses S Grant._

"Quickness is the essence of War." _Sun Tzu_

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." _Napoleon Bonaparte_

"Sweat saves blood." _Erwin Rommel_

"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." _Murphy_

"War is Hell." _William Tecumseh Sherman_

Afterward.

"An Opera? They are showing us _that?_, Why?"

"We are not barbarians. You might have been born in a third world wasteland. You will learn to be a well-rounded, civilized person, not just a fighting machine. There is more to the world than war."

Under his breath, the DI mumbles, "Even if this stupidity is forced down our throat by the owner of Tyr."

Graduation Day.

The DI states, "You passed. Abdul Qasim." A pause. "NOW comes the real world training." A hard smile. "After a year or two of doing basic, mindless stuff, we'll see. Do a good job… And you will be given more, harder, training. Then even harder assignments. Then we do it, again."

* * *

1 year later.

Sniper training.

Abdul shivers as the cold breath of his Instructor crosses his cheek, as Herman leans over him to show how to properly aim the rifle.

He knows the real test is not the sniper training.

But...can he keep his mouth shut?

People that comment about the oddness of some of the best instructors...get transferred to harmless, if vital, positions. If you want to get into combat, if you want to be the best, you kept your mouth shut.

2 years later.

"Good after action report, Qasim." His platoon sergeant tells him. "That was a rough fight."

Abdul nods. Fighting in Southern Sudan. A mess of religions fighting each other, as oil companies make money. The corporations pay well for good soldiers, but. Sometimes, you wonder, is that the best thing that you can do?

The sergeant clears his throat, "You have a choice, now, Abdul Qasim. Risi spoke well of you. He wanted me to ask you if you are willing to accept special training." The last couple of words are spoken in a very particular accent.

'_Risi… the special platoon member that dropped in and saved our asses, when the shit hit the fan_.' Abdul thinks. '_Now comes the choice. Decline and be a normal soldier in Tyr. Or, accept and…. who knows for sure what happens? But, there are rumors. You fight for something more than a dollar, that is for sure_.'

He smiles, "I would be glad to accept, sir."

Next.

Standing at attention during a medal parade. Some complain about them, they are pinning medals and praising people for saving civilians. Why praise them for something that they should do, automatically?

But some others.. There are PR people taping the show. Some of the civilians whose lives they saved are here. Nice, good, useful, vital PR for a mercenary outfit.

Rumors circulate, though. Tonight, someone will be here to give them some private praise, someone important. Her name changes each time, at least in public, but in private her name is Elsa or Queen Elsa.

Looking at her, listening to her when she speaks...You know that she is the reason Tyr exists. Tyr exists to save people. She will praise and reward people who save others, at the voluntary risk of their lives. To her there is no higher calling.

Inevitably.

A visit to the healers office. Not a doctor or a psychiatrist. A healer. One of the great benefits of Tyr is their medical department. Many of the older vets from other armies join Tyr just for this.

When you are hurt, you are healed. Even in the field, once you get to a healer, you live. If a replacement prosthetic limb is needed, one is provided, the best in the world. Retraining is excellent. The care will last the rest of your life.

Medical schools are searched over and over. The best students, the most compassionate, the ones willing to go the extra mile are recruited, even before graduation. The money is excellent, but the real reason is that you will help people, and if there is a problem, Tyr will fix it. Whatever the cost. Everything is in-house: only under the rarest of conditions are outsiders brought in.

But...The best part, the part he needs. A visit to the mind healers. A talk with them, an hour or two of time, and the PTSDs start to fade. Oh, it takes work, mental training and exercises, but it works. Even if the talk with them is basically the same as any psychiatrist would give you, but there is something extra, something magical about them.

Sometimes those healers will accept apprentices. The best are sent to a special place, known only as Troll. They, when they return, can work miracles, or seem to.

_Note: Magical talent and compassion combined is something that Elsa looks hard for, when found in combination, those people are heavily recruited. (Elsa, at times, has considered raw kidnaping, she wants them that badly.)_

* * *

3 years ago…

Near Khost.

Old friends are in trouble. They have destroyed a girls school and killed all within.

Abdul has given the special platoon leader Elizabeth all the knowledge of them he can.

Being placed under her is a mixed blessing. She has never failed a mission and the casualty rate of her unit is the smallest of all. But… There is an aura around her. Something...dangerous.

Something...

He is with her when she confronts the tribal chiefs.

Elizabeth, a tall, thin, pale Russian looking woman with dark shoulder length hair, stalks into the room. The sitting tribal chiefs just grunt when she enters.

Her lips curl, "You have forgotten me, Daoud. I would have thought that you would have remembered the woman who cut your face." She says in a cool voice, there is no translator, she speaks the language. Her accent is strange, like out of the old tales, the verbal stories that are passed down from generation to generation.

The ones that are never told to outsiders.

Daoud, one of the eldest of the chiefs, places a hand on his white beard and the scar underneath. He pales and rises quickly. "Ice Devil Princess." He spits out.

She nods.

The others rise. They have heard the stories. The Ice Devils. For over a hundred years they have haunted these mountains, at times working for foreign forces, but you can make deals with them. Make the right one and you are unbeatable. Make the wrong one and you are dead.

Abdul pales. He knew those stories as well, and part of the chill of hearing them was the vague suggestion that they were true. It is nice to have one's suspicions confirmed.

Nice. Though, it is disturbing.

She gives Daoud a piece of paper with the names that Abdul gave her. "These are the cowardly, diseased pieces of shit that murdered children. Is anyone not on that list?" She asks in a polite tone.

He looks at it, scowling.

"I will find out. A lie will mean your life, your sons, all of them, and any adult grandson's lives." Frost forms along the floor and wall.

Daoud spits out two more names.

Elizabeth smiles. "The old rules, Daoud. They have 24 hours to hide in the mountains. After that I will have 24 hours to hunt and kill them. Any that live after 48 hours, can live."

Daoud grinds his teeth, but nods.

"They hide in a building, they hide in the village. There will be no building, there will be no village." Men's breaths are seen, puffing from their lungs.

He nods again. According to stories, some have lived when going against the Ice Devils. Rarely. Only the best of the best survive although, if his memory is correct, no one has survived against an Ice Devil Princess. Never. This Ice Devil Princess has an especially bad reputation, as well. That reputation is based on stories from the 1980's when she worked with the Russians.

An icy glance at the tribal leaders, "Cowards, not men, attack and kill children. Pieces of shit, not men, torture them first. Cowardly, diseased, pieces of shit rape them." The hooded gaze of a Siberian tiger sizing up its prey. A gleam of her icy teeth as she smiles, she is enjoying this. "I should kill you all for simply being their fathers. Only cowardly, diseased, pieces of shit can breed more. Real men would not breed with filth.".

The elders start to growl, start to call for an attack, start to pull weapons before Daoud yells, "STOP! That is what she wants, an excuse to kill us all!"

A smile. "Perhaps you are not a piece of shit, Daoud. The time starts now." She orders.

The tribal leaders pale, nod, and obey.

Sacrificing a few to save their lives and their village is a good thing.

The next day, shortly after the 24 hours are up..

Screams start echoing from the mountains. The killers of children being tortured to death as they scream. Their cries echo, again and again.

None escape.

Elizabeth leaves the village still standing, undamaged. She did not have to kill two of them, since the village leaders killed them when they tried to hide in the village. To appease her, they died under torture, before she knew about it.

Abdul leaves with her knowing, with bone chilling knowledge, that there are people in this world that you never, ever, even if you are suicidal…piss off.

Elizabeth is one of those beings.

And her spells, the audio spells, that create sounds worked just fine. The sounds of men screaming were from those spells. She killed the cowardly filth in the quick painless manner of a vermin exterminator killing cockroaches..

Six months later, men from other villages try to destroy the rebuilt school. Daoud and other village leaders kill those men, protecting that school.

Another visit by Elizabeth is be avoided at**_ all_ **costs.

* * *

Now.

"Ragnhild is a great, if hard, commander to work for. She will ab lib, always, so you have to be on your toes." He tells a newbie to his team.

Staff Sergeant Abdul Qasim jumps from the helicopter as it lands at the Fractal Headquarter in Karachi.

He waves at his friend Risi, as he looks around.

He gathers his people and they move to their pre-planned positions.

Tyr built him out of nothing.

The goal, peace on earth, is a good one.

_She _has his loyalty.

end scene

* * *

What Elsa's other children are doing.

Geneva Switzerland

One mile under the headquarters of the International Red Cross.

Elsa's daughter, Frigga, sits in her computer room, monitoring...many things. Heavy cables leave her desk and enter another room. The other room is full of multiple parallel quantum computers.

Multiple screens stream data. In every form available. Some are computer screens, some are something else.

Small Magic Mirrors. They give video-like views of scenes that are not on the web.

Like… What is happening in quote secure unquote office hundreds of yards under the White House, perhaps.

Her eyes rove from screen to screen watching. Her computer chip is working. Her time is almost frozen.

She thinks and another magic mirror-like item records her thoughts and transmits them…elsewhere... at inhuman speed.

The world-renowned and feared hacker, Ice Spider, is in her web...and information is her prey.

* * *

Washington DC.

An area full of warehouses. The sign on the building: Adamas Diamonds. Which, no doubt, explains the fortress-like building and the heavy security.

In the owners office.

Canute, Elsa's son, codename: White King, watches Queen Elsa on the TV. He is talking to someone about it. He is also glancing at his laptop, keeping track of the data on it. He stops talking and walks to the window.

He thinks, _'Frigga's hacks will tell me everything that is on the net. BUT... Life is not only on the net. My diamond business gives me social connections all over the city. I will, in time, learn through gossip, what the US plans to do about Queen Elsa. It will take time, though.'_

He shrugs, _'Not that it matters. The current US President, who is an otherwise nice person, is afraid of making the wrong decisions. So he... dithers and hesitates trying to make the perfect decision. As such, he makes the worst decision a leader could. HE decides on nothing.'_

He does worry though_, 'Still, his past history with Anna Winter will cause him to be aggressive, sooner or later. If only he had followed her orders and voted for the Antarctic Treaty in 2048. But… Elsa's foes blackmailed him into voting against it.' _He thinks sadly_. 'Now he pays for his distrust of her.'_

A glance at the security man walking the grounds, _'Oh, there are private forces that probably will do something, first. My Knight will tell me more, when he gets out of that meeting with Blackwater.'_

'_The US will wait and see, once the knowledge of Karachi spreads. And if the Military-Industrial Complex decides to act on it's own, they'll walk into the trap, Queen Elsa has waiting_.' He grins, thinking about that trap.

The phone rings again...

He answers it, "Hello, Senator. Yes, I am watching..."

end scene

* * *

Peking, China

A room... full of Ice.

"Do not worry, Julius. You know Kilroy is dependable and he will return your snowflake." Alexander, Elsa's son, codename Black King, says to his second in command Julius.

Julius nods angrily. "You could have lent him yours."

"I am the King. You are the Bishop."

An angry snort from Julius. He thinks, '_If I was your original Bishop, you would respect me more, Asshole. But, you lost him when you tried to explore the multiverse without Mother.'_

"When do you expect people to arrive?"

"Since this ice factory is named after Elsa, pretty soon." Alexander smiles, "And then... They will attack us. Retreating would be showing a weakness, so we must stay and defend ourselves."

_'Damn it, Alexander. Stop pushing Elsa's limits.' _Julius thinks. '_You know the plan and this is not part of it.'_

Alexander's smile grows. "I wonder how long before they line up the artillery and we can really counterattack? Then..."

He thinks, '_I was never happy about hiding, at any time. Finally, I can reveal myself. And I am going to do it in a big a manner as possible. Even if the plan is for me to stay hidden the first few weeks, to give China a chance to work with Elsa. But, that will never work, so we should just go to war against China first. You win wars by being aggressive. Mother just does not understand that.'_

Snort, "I should be in Karachi, not Ragnhild." He says in an angry voice.

'_Mother wants that part of the plan done correctly,_' Julius bits his lips to prevent him from screaming at Alexander. '_She trusts her to do it right, even if she ad libs more than Mother might like.' _

"Still. I will get show the world how good I am." Alexander declares. "There will be no hiding."

His icy smile is blinding…

End scene

* * *

I do have a full chapter on Elizabeth planned... that 1,000 word scene is now at 4,000 words...

* * *

Author's note: To the readers… Sigh. Some behind the scenes info, ok.

My rough draft, in april, had Elsa's back story taking 8-10 chapters at about 4-6,000 words ea. That, obviously, has been blown up. Still. I do want to get to the action. I've got action scenes in mind, that keeping begging me to write them. the Battle of Hong Kong. The Battle of Europe. The final meeting between Elsa and Hel. The battle between Elsa and God-Emperor...but. they need set up.

One of the reasons that I've been adding to the size of chapters of Elsa Bjorgman's and Astrid Oaken's lives in an attempt to cut the number of chapters, so I could get the first stage of the coming war... IF I had continued at the same chapter size of Queen Elsa's life, there would be at least 3 additional chapters and three more weeks of time.

But… as mentioned in a couple of reviews… especially in last chapter of Astrid Oaken, there was a pretty serious missed stitch when I forgot to mention Hiroshima. And another reviewer mentioned how long it was.

So… Beginning with Kristen's lifetime, my goal is get the chapter size back under 7,500 words at least, 5,000 if possible. This will slow things down so I don't miss something like Hiroshima again. Plus, to be honest, Sooner or later, I have to get more philosophical parts, like religion, and making sure that is right, deserves some extra time.

So...given that, Kristen chapter 1 and later chapters will be smaller, so instead of total of 2 chapters, it will 3, or more likely 4 chapters for that lifetime. And her final lifespan will be the same. To get some action in, I will be doing more chapters like this one.

If there is something you, the reader, want to see more of, just ask. I had a reviewer, in a private e-mail, mention Elsa's appearance in Once Upon a Time, so at the end of Kristen chapter 1...there will be a scene with Rumpelstiltskin in it. Nothing like the TV show, btw. but something.

Also, there is some real life events that may delay things in the later half of august/first of sept. Hopefully, there will not be any delays in the publication schedule, but, it could happen. IF it does, any delay should just be a week or so.

thank you

jeff


	13. Chapter 12 Kristen Westgaard 1

Kristen Elsa Westergaard chapter 1

Thank you to ptahaegyptus2 for your support and Beta.

* * *

Author's note: To the readers. Up until this chapter I have gone to great pains to try to keep this world I've been describing the same as our reality. With this chapter, things will start to diverge. The events in this life is simply too new. Sigh. In order for Elsa to act like she is, the world must be a darker, harder place than it is now… and those changes begins in this life.

I could play around with reality in her other lives, since most of that was history. Now as we approach today… It becomes much harder to play that game. So… some of the details will be real, some will not. And as I get closer to the NOW, the reality will lessen.

HUGE Sigh. I'll try, people, but...

Note: I am using the University of Oslo in this, but, do not take anything I write as real.

There is an extended scene in that starts in this chapter and occupies all of the second chapter, that grabbed me and it would not let me go until I wrote it.

* * *

A sad smile.

Then a happy one. "The final last laugh at history."

Queen Elsa's face changes. Her clothes change into something that looks like an old style uniform. When she is finished she looks like a sister to Prince Hans of the Southern Isles might look.

"My new identity. Kristen Elsa Westergaard."

Both Liam and Richard eyes light up. They both recognized the name.

Liam swallows.

Elsa smiles and states. "Due to the restrictions placed on me during that meeting in March 1963, I had to stay away from political power. So, I had to choose something that would keep me away from that."

She thinks, '_I did tell Lif of my plans, then. She was aware of the growing problems with the Earth and gave me a great deal of information. Especially, how the world has changed since she was a child. My family has extracted a great deal of knowledge from that. More than she wanted?_' A mental shake of her head. '_No. She knew what she gave me. Why she gave me all that information, though, is still a question._'

"I knew that I was going to do something about the environment. But, before I did that… I must admit that Beatlemania did affect me." A sad shake of her head. "That and my love of music did distract me for a few months."

She smiles, "With my musical skills I knew that would be one of the very popular performers." A sigh, "But, sleeping with the producers and any other man who would advance my career had no appeal."

"Surely, with your wealth, you can have bought at a record label and fired the people who offended you?" Richard asks quickly. "And then make records."

She quickly nods. "Yes, I did that. There are songs that I released at the time." A smile, "I will decline to say under what name I used."

"Please?" Richard begs.

She shakes her head. "I am sorry, Richard. A lady should have some secrets." A sly smile, "Besides I am sure that there are music lovers that can figure it out."

"The way that you are speaking about this. You decided against it?" Liam asks.

"Yes. It was momentary fancy, nothing more." A laugh. "Though, it was the fans that helped to change my mind. You must understand, that up til now, my public speaking and appearances, were as a Queen mainly, and only in front of smallish and orderly crowds. I think the largest crowd that Queen Elsa ever spoke in front of was...15,000, no less than that, closer to 10,000."

She pauses, then explains, "Both as Elsa Bjorgman and Astrid Oaken, I was not a public speaker. Elsa left that to others, while she stood behind them, and Astrid never used that sort of power."

She gives a small laugh, "This was the first time I really interacted as the center of attention with truly large crowds of normal people, not an audience from a small city, many of whom I knew, or politicians and bureaucrats." A sigh. "And the raw potential, the… the crude behavior... I just...just could not do it."

A shake of her head. "I had thought that I had conquered my… my mild phobia about crowds. But, I had not." A bite of her lips, "Even today, I am not comfortable standing in front of the masses."

Liam nods. "Yes. If that life you were living before today is who I think you are, her nervousness in her public addresses was well-known, even if only among professional watchers."

'_Once I got over my shock of her magic, it was obvious who Queen Elsa has been before today_.' Liam looks at her hair. "_Her vanity about her hair tells me who she becomes after this life_. _The only question is: Did Ms Winter duplicate her hair color in admiration of Queen Elsa? Or did Elsa create that complex and detailed of a life history? I know people who remember attending elementary school with Ms. Winter_.'

Elsa has a sly smile on her face, "Probably, if your guess is correct." A sigh. "Still I wanted to do something. And that raw potential drew me. I had to fix that. Which confirmed my choice about getting into education. I would teach the children, the young adults and help them learn to use that potential."

She shifts in her throne to a more commanding stance as she says in a professional tone, "But first, came my environmental goals. While there was a rising ground swelling of public environmental concerns, what science there was about environmental effects was still limited. If I was going to do something about it, I would first have to educate the public about the mistakes that were happening."

"Before that, though, I would have to figure out the science behind how the world works." She smiles. "I knew the magic that is in this world." She points to her heart. "I just had to translate it to my mind and then into science." She points to her head.

Her smiles grows, "Actually, the first decade or so of this life was very enjoyable. Later that changed, but still, I am very proud of the work I did during this life."

"I am at a loss, here, Queen Elsa." Liam confesses, "Kristen Westergaard is...famous. And I did not prepare to ask _**her **_questions. I forget how many times I've watched you in my journalism classes rip apart reporters, who asked you what you considered stupid questions."

Memories flood back of his journalism professor, an old-school producer from a mid-west station, halting the 50 year-old recording, pointing at the screen, and yelling, "Charisma will only get you so far! THIS is why you have to do your damn homework BEFORE the interview, because charisma will do you NO DAMN GOOD after someone like HER gets done chewing your damn lazy ass off!"

Elsa shrugs, "It was a tactic to keep me out of the spotlight. If reporters knew that I was a problem interview then the number of interviews I had to give would be smaller." She smiles, "Don't worry, Liam. I understand and will be more forgiving than I was. Besides," she smirks, "you haven't asked any _really_ stupid questions yet. You were close a couple of times, but you recovered nicely."

He wipes his forehead in relief.

"So, Let us begin at the beginning of this life, then. Ask what you may, Liam."

Liam nods, but he is typing into his laptop, searching for something. Then he stops and asks, quickly, "You said that the KGB helped create this id, were there problems with them?"

She shakes her head, "Not really, they knew how to compartmentalize information better than the CIA, so I only had to alter the memories of a few people to totally hide." A grimace, "Admittedly the past reputation of this family did cause problems. Especially during the Reagan years, as I became a world-famous scientist, people would point to the bad episodes of his family's history, and they were bad, and people would use that to try to discredit me."

A nod from Liam, as he returns to the laptop.

Queen Elsa shifts position and temples her fingers in front of her. "I had always enjoyed learning. As I said earlier, even before I was Queen, I was earning degrees." A pause, "But, except for the couple of years between 1881-1883, all my studying and degrees were by correspondence, not on campus."

She laughs as she tries out a small joke, "Here I was almost 150 years old and, I could actually, now, go to college and plan on staying for a while. Also, settling down, instead of the continuous movement in the Astrid Oaken identity, helped me more than I thought."

Richard laughs. Liam, after hearing that, gives a forced chuckle, but continues to work his laptop.

"So, I returned to Norway and enrolled in Royal Frederick's University, or by its modern name, University of Oslo." A smile. "The fourth time I earned a bachelors of Mathematics."

She nods to Richard, "The workload was still easy."

He nods, "By this time, you probably could have skipped those classes."

"I did skip some classes, being known as exceptional, but not too extraordinary was good." Her voice sharpens, "And I began to work on mastering the science behind the world's environment..

But my main goal was to establish the parameters of how humans impact the earth, both negative and positive. After all," her voice softens, "humans too participate in the Circle of Life. We just needed, and still need, to learn how to be _responsible_ participants. So, that goal determined the rest of my courses."

Liam mentally nods to himself, remembering similar phraseology while growing up, filing away the suspicion that Kristen Westergaard had a hand in the curriculum of his elementary and high school science education as a later question. "Why Oslo?" Liam asks aloud, "I know your bio simply says it was cheap and close to home. However, given your new history, you could have chosen any university, so why?"

Queen Elsa nods, a pause, "I did look around, and even moved into one of my old houses in Geneva with the intention of enrolling there." A small smile, "Then, I realized that I was falling into old patterns. Old habits. Which, as I studied my peers...is a very bad habit to get into. Change... Change is good."

Sigh. "Also, there were just too many memories. Good memories, mainly, that I didn't want to have gone sour." A shake of her head.

'_Visiting Johanna's grave on a daily basis, trying to apologize to her..._' Queen Elsa thinks as she mentally grieves for an old friend.

"There were other universities with more and better environmental based classes. But… none of them really appealed. Some, very good choices indeed, were in the United States, but being that far from Europe did not attract me." A shrug. "And those last few years working with the CIA had left a bad taste in my mouth."

"Looking back, enrolling at MIT would have been a better, more visible starting point than Oslo. I spent most of decade working in obscurity, while my reputation grew. MIT would have decreased that time, considerably, and eased some of the minor problems that occur when people look at who gave you a degree, not looking at what you have done with that degree." She says with a hint of humor in her voice. "I'm just a hometown girl, though."

"Other European universities? Some, many in fact, were superior to Oslo, which is why I lived in Geneva for that month. But…" A shrug. "Given time...who knew what the future might bring? My magic and my secrets would cause...distractions, as it had in the past and would, no doubt, cause more in the future. I did have a lot of connections in Oslo. So, just in case I might have to leave for unpredictable lengths, unexpectedly, quickly, having… influence with the University… might be useful. So, I choose Oslo."

Liam nods.

Elsa says as she continues, "At the time, there wasn't a modern environmental degree program, so I had to make my own.," She rolls her eyes, thinking back at the problems the University admin gave her, as she would not follow their recommendations. "Remembering my pledge in Africa as I saw the circle of life in the Serengeti plain I began with evolution and how environmental changes have altered the number and types of species."

A large smile comes out, "Watching, again, the great, Oscar-winning, documentary 'Serengeti Shall Not Die' made in 1959, helped to refocus my goals." An illusion of some of the scenes from that film appear and runs in the background during this part of her life.

She says in a sad tone, "I would have liked, loved really, to have used 'White Wilderness' as inspiration...but the mistakes with the lemmings are unforgivable."

A pause, "My knowledge, from other sources about the Ice Age, allowed me to write a paper about how Ice Age hunters, combined with the rapid warming from the end of the ice age, killed off the Mammoth. A still controversial paper but my source lived during that time period."

She pauses, to make sure that this sentence is on its own, "That paper, still written while I was an undergraduate, started my career in this life."

Liam asks, his eyes narrow, "You were an undergrad, how did you get that published?"

"It was not in a science journal, but the University magazine _Profil_, which at the time was a house organ for the Humanities faculty at the University of Oslo. I had to disguise it as a short adventure story about a young man trying to find a Mammoth to kill to become a man. I wrote the science part as an extended author's note that often got reprinted as a stand-alone piece."

Liam nods as he types into his laptop.

"Undergraduate students working on projects get mentioned in the footnotes, at best." She shrugs, "After all this time I was so used to working from the shadows that it was normal to…basically rewrite a paper correctly and let someone else take the credit."

Liam looks up from his laptop. "Yeah. It wasn't obvious but there is a correlation between you and many of the environmental studies from the mid 1960's." A grin. "The web, if you search with the right terms, you can find everything."

Elsa nods. "You found one of the websites that goes into my life, didn't you?"

Liam smiles and pats his laptop.

"Still, my work grew in nature and notoriety as I gained notice."

"I would make sure that I teamed with others so their names would be on the papers and they could talk to reporters." A pause and lean into the camera, as she earnestly explains, "This is not to take anything away from the efforts of the others. In many cases, their efforts were far more than mine. I just corrected or strengthened the math and provided internal reviews. They had to stand up and tell people, many of whom did not want to listen, about what was happening to the Earth. Something that I was not comfortable doing."

A laugh, "I would not have been able to give an extended interview like this back then." A slight grin, a shrug, "Habits of more than two lifetimes of secrecy. But, my tactics were reasonably effective and the public knowledge grew."

In the tone of a long time professor, she says begins her prepared speech, "This is a little before I became Kristen, but 'Silent Spring' was the springboard for most of this. That book and the controversy surrounding it brought environmentalism into the public eye. Others kept the public informed, I just made sure that the science was right."

"The deaths of 168 people in New York City due to smog in 1966 gave my report, written while taking a meteorology class, on air pollution from 1965 a somewhat wide circulation. The report wasn't anything new, by the way, Air Pollution laws started in the 1950's. I just updated and corrected some of the data."

"The sinking of the oil tanker Torrey Canyon in 1967 off England, and the English air force's stupid attempt to bomb it to cause the oil to burn, caused people to burn many copies of another of my papers as I attacked that stupid tactic. My first public and published attack on the public policies of a nation."

A pause, "You must understand, these early successes did bring me a measure of notoriety, around Oslo, Stockholm and the surrounding areas. I did not have a worldwide fame, just locally."

"In 1969, I spotted the potential collapse of the Icelandic summer herring in time to save some of them." A tight grin, "Luckily I was dealing with people who I could influence as Queen Elsa and they did what I ordered them to do."

A snort, "That got a sharp note from my friends about interference." She shakes her head. "Were they short-sighted? Or were they taking a very long view?" A deep sigh.

A silence.

Richard coughs.

"Go ahead, Richard."

"Joan, what were you doing? I am assuming that neither the CIA or the KGB would forget about you. Or were you included in the magic that Queen Elsa used to wipe the knowledge about her?"

Joan looks at Queen Elsa, who shrugs. The illusion of the scenes from the film, "Serengeti Shall Not Die" that has been running in the background, stops.

"You are basically correct, Mr Harper. The limitations on Queen Elsa were vague when it came to us. Our assumptions, which proved to be correct, was that the limits on Queen Elsa were to include us." A grin, "but, that detail was not spelled out, so we chose to ignore it."

"Some of them, still to this day, believe that we are just complex soulless golems that Elsa pretends to have personalities." Her grin grows.

She says in a brisk tone, "But to answer your question, the CIA and the KGB were aware of us, at least as group of very experienced dependable mercenaries. Queen Elsa made sure about that while she was removing traces of her actions."

She nods to her mother, "Due to those limitations on her, we operated very independently during this time frame. After 1970, that changed, but for the first five years that held true." She smiles at her mother, "Actually, given Queen Elsa's distractions, shall we say, during large parts of her life as Kristen, we, her military children, could be very independent. After 1970, with the near continuous pressure on her to kept us under quote control unquote, the military, especially as front line soldiers was denied to us. So, many of us used various identities to explore more normal human lives."

Herman adds, "But those stories are for the future and not really germane here, other than, it gave us a much more rounded view of people than we had before."

Elsa thinks, pleased with herself, '_The trouble it took me to get them to look at the other parts of life was greater than I thought it would be, but well worth that effort.'_

"Elizabeth, given her past history, generally worked for the KGB, Canute for the Americans, Alexander and I varied." She rubs her chin, "I will only mention my actions during this time."

Richard and Liam nods.

"I generally haunted Africa, the Middle East and India during this timeframe." She nods to Herman, "Which generally meant every couple of years a season in the Hindu Kush trying to pound some sense into the Pashtuns. And then a few months in Africa fighting on one side or the other in some stupid war."

Herman nods. "It wasn't so bad during this five-year period, but yeah, we spent a lot of time in those mountains. We got a nickname of the 'Ice Devils' during that time."

Joan laughs, "Probably the most interesting time was in 1969, Russia was asking America to join them in an attack against Chinese nuclear arms plants. With Alexander and Canute occupied in Vietnam, I had to go the China. Then the Russians sent Elizabeth to the Chinese border." Another laugh. "Between the two of us, we made sure that some idiot of a local general, fighting a nameless skirmish in the middle of nowhere, did not start a nuclear WWIII in 1969."

(note: based on real event, by the way.)

She snorts, "The fact the US did not help Russia helped open up China to the US when Nixon started to approach China in 1970."

"Which got me another, sharper note, from my friends." Elsa remarks, with a touch of cold in her voice.

Joan nods, "We kept our actions more hidden, after 1970."

She thinks, '_I started to study magic on a fulltime basis, releasing those on my team that didn't want to learn it, to work with the others. This is when most began to work as trainers, instead of the trainee. That was familiar to us, later we expanded into different lives.' _

She glances at Herman, '_He loved those couple of years as a Hollywood Stuntman_.' A mental sigh, '_For me, though, Elizabeth…had already started her deep journey into magic, I needed to catch up with her.'_

Elsa, seeing that Joan is not going to expand on her statement, says, "During the early 70's I received my PhD in Quantum Mechanics and earned a masters in Environmental Science, one of the first that Oslo gave out."

"My writings during this time period and later," She nods to Liam's laptop, "are available on the web. I still back them. I went into detail about the early papers, because of misrepresentation in some the common knowledge about my early writings."

Liam nods and looks at his laptop, "There was a lot of unrest at the time, I see that you were involved?"

Queen Elsa smiles, "The summer of 1968, mainly. Yes, by that time I was well-known on campus and my opinions sought after. _Profil _changed its publishing mind." A grin, "It published a lot of very good modern literature. I wrote some of it, some under this name, some under other names."

"But, in more general terms, I did lead some of the protests of the time." A sigh, "That was also part of the quote note unquote in 1969."

A dreamy look materializes in her eyes, "All that energy. All those dreams. Anything looked possible." A sigh. A shake of her head, "Drugs cost us credibility, wasted energy, and valuable lives."

Liam coughs, "Queen Elsa, one thing that I had always wondered about, but, I do not really remember a reference to it in my memory of your bio I read years ago." He pauses, she nods, encouraging him. "Nuclear Weapons were a hot issue at this time, why were your views not clear?"

"AH," She smiles, "That is because I could see the advantages in MAD. It prevented a hot WWIII. For that, I will forgive a lot of my personal problems with the nuclear weapons. The common view of the students at the time, though, was to throw them away and try to forget that they ever existed. Which, as a fantasy, I approve of, but in reality, I can not." She snorts, "My unwillingness to agree to a total ban on nuclear weapons, did cost me some popularity as well. And because that stance confused people, it is rarely made clear in my bios."

She shrugs, "If the bio you read was written by fans of mine...they did not want to show what they considered a possibly bad decision. If they were written by my enemies, they did not want to show a decision that they approved of."

She shakes her head. "MAD, as used in the Cold War, no longer really applies, sadly. There are just too many rogue organizations with access to nukes. The attempt to destroy Rome in 1927. The quote accident unquote in North Korea in 2035, when Kim Jong-un suppressed the revolt that never happened. The Explosion that ended the Venezuelan civil war in 2046. I know who made that device, I can even tell you how they got it into Caracas. That was the last case of MAD, since to destroy that actor, would destroy another actor."

Liam and Richard shudder as they remember. A week of horror. Waiting for Iran and Israel to vanish under mushroom clouds within a couple of hours. Until, for a still unexplained reason, Iran backed down.

Elsa thinks in anger, '_It took a couple of days for Lif to arrange a fig-leaf with Fuqtus. He quote borrowed unquote Canute and Elizabeth. As Canute was explaining the facts of life to the idiots in Qom, Elizabeth was stealing most of their weapon grade material. We tested the Full-sized Railguns by firing that material into Sol_.' She sighs, '_Even though we disguised ourselves as a Chinese strike team, they will put two and two together, and Iran will attack my children in Karachi and will do so with Nuclear Weapons.'_

"But, even the Venezuelan accords against nuclear weapons that were signed after that horror, can not prevent the, and I am going to be polite, non-rational nuclear actors. If I was unpolite, I would call them insane." Her voice growls with anger as she finishes.

"You mentioned that you **do** personal problems with Nuclear Weapons?" Liam asks quickly, the anger that she is displaying, frightens him... "Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I am guessing?"

Queen Elsa nods and says, "Little Boy and Fat Man." Queen Elsa says with disgust in her voice. She purses her lips, "My opinion on them, as with all nuclear weapons, is not all that positive." She shrugs, "I have, during this interview, been as positive as I could, so avoiding my specific problems with them was a goal."

"Not all goals are achievable." She sighs, "I knew the plans. Unless someone screwed up on the plane, they were going to explode. So waiting in the Pacific for the explosion was not something I needed or wanted to do."

Another sigh, "And given the deaths of the my daughter and granddaughter, the thought of going to Japan was not appealing, at the time. Later, during the Korean War, I did visit their graves." A pause. "Frigga and a team visited the sites in late 1945 and brought back their own reports."

She eyes close. "Viewing those reports and the enclosed pictures was one of the reasons I had to retreat to Antarctica in 1946. I had to cleanse my soul of them." A twist of her lips, "It did not work, sometimes, I still have nightmares of those reports. As I have nightmares about the Firebombing of Tokyo in March that killed members of my family."

She slowly speaks, choosing her words with care, "How necessary they were? My sources in Japan… Killing well over a hundred thousand people definitely saved the lives of millions, maybe tens of millions, of Japanese civilians, plus it saved the lives of all the soldiers on both sides, that would have died before the declaration of peace. Given that… I must, however much I disliked it... I approved of their use in this instance.."

She taps her head, "As an emotionless thinker, I can measure the plus's and negative's of the use of Nuclear weapons in a total war." She taps her heart. "As a person, a loving and caring person, my heart breaks even thinking about using them."

Joan and Herman hugs her in sympathy.

"I am a weapon of mass destruction." She nods to Joan, "Joan and several of my children are also weapons of mass destruction. I have held myself and them in check, as a statement of good will, and I will reciprocate to actors that do not use weapons of mass destruction. I will continue that policy, but..." Queen Elsa declares in a calm, cool tone.

Queen Elsa states, looking at the camera. "I know there will be plans by various militaries to attack Antarctica with any sort of weapon. I would not be doing this if I was not sure about the defenses that I have put in place." A pause. "Test them at your own peril." Chill is in her voice.

"I do plan additional demonstrations of my power. One of which will include a demonstration of the defenses against such an attack."

'_One of the polar orbit LEO satellites that Fractal put up will be deorbited over Antarctica. It will destroyed before it can hit the ground_.' Queen Elsa thinks, '_That should show people who I can stop ICBMs. And it will not litter LEO orbit with pieces of junk that destroying one of spy satellites would.'_

Joan adds, "I have seen the devices. They can defend us." She states in a sure tone of voice. Herman nods, vigorously, in agreement.

Liam gulps. "I understand."

Richard coughs, "Queen Elsa, how did you adjust to life on campus? Surely your family and their visits caused problems?" He asks trying to brighten the mood.

"Ah… Family visits. Not really, by this time between increases in our knowledge and spells, the ability to blend in was pretty much perfected. Eric, Asa and Ragnhild also enrolled with me." A smile. "They are under different names, listed as close friends in most of the bios of me. Krol, I used my connections to get him appointed as a professor. He published some of his best poems during this time period."

She shrugs, "The rest of the family rarely visited. I visited them since trips around Oslo and Arendelle were easy to arrange." A sigh, "As far as campus life goes...I had good times, I had bad times, life in other words."

"My life on campus never reached the levels shown in that classic movie, Animal House, but I knew people who did live that lifestyle." She shudders. "The filth that they lived in. Living in a neat and clean environment is something that I had always done. And while I have gained an appreciation for chaos, that appreciation is limited to the math side of my life. There is chaos theory, and then there is Chaos. That lifestyle is just far too crazy for me to live in."

"Probably the most insane and most dangerous time was during a party." A crazy smile, "Somebody spiked the food and drinks…Eric had to knock me out before I destroyed the campus. LSD and I do not work well, together, I discovered."

Liam and Richard shudder in horror. Herman and Joan nod in sympathy. That episode was not pleasant...

"Since then, I have developed spells that make sure that I know, exactly, what I am tasting, or smelling, or just entering my body in general." Elsa shudders. "I do not want to go through that again. I also used magic to cleanse myself of all the negative side effects of LSD." She looks at the camera, "There is some new technology in my R&D pipeline, that will duplicate that effect for general use, but it just isn't quite ready yet."

She glares at the camera, "I probably should go on a long rant about drug abuse, but, I will decline. I will only say… Using artificial chemicals irresponsibly, whether in the human body or on the body of the Earth, is evil. **IF** you have to, I repeat, if you have to use them, do so with extreme caution, know and deal with the side effects, and stop using them at the earliest opportunity, even if that means some pain or difficulty." A grimace, "Even using natural chemicals is bad if used in ways, or in amounts, that nature did not intend."

She smiles, "Remember that dihydrogen monoxide kills, either when used in amounts too much for the human body, or in amounts too little for people, misuse of that chemical kills a great number of individuals each year."

Richard looks at Liam. He and Richard grin at that little joke, a common one in Kristen Westergaard's rare speeches.

"Admittedly, I gained the reputation as a prude, at least when it came to drugs. and that cost me some popularity. Which retaught me a lesson: being popular or being right, which is correct?" A look at the camera. "I will be right. I will do what I feel I must. Come what may."

A pause.

"One of the good things, though, about the 1960's, was that I could finally come out of the closet about my sexuality." A smile. "And I could be a bit more vocal about women's rights than I had been."

A look at Liam, "Since I brought it up, the inevitable question of my sex life."

He grins and nods.

A sigh, a twist of a grin, a touch to her braid, "I was popular. And, yes, including in the bedroom. But, everything was, also, a one night stand. Which… just is not enough." A shake of her head. "I did start to try to find a more permanent partner, but no one appeared."

"I remember, more than once, during this time trying to convince fellow students that if you wanted to have fun in the bedroom, do not use drugs. They alter nature and prevent you from having the full connection you need with your partner." She sighs, "I could never then, and still can not, understand the pleasure in, at best, dulling your mind, with drugs or alcohol. Once I might allow, since anybody can make a mistake, but only an idiot persists in making the same one over and over."

Liam and Richard nod, as they remember clips from some of Kristen's anti-drug rants. They sometimes, no, many times, were not polite. Being called an idiot is milder than normal, coming from Kristen Westergaard.

"Between the notes from my peers and my growing reputation, in 1970 I went to Antarctica as part of the University's Antarctic project." A look at Herman and Joan. "It was a very useful visit all the way around. Since I stayed for a couple of years, it allowed all my children a chance to visit me and Antarctica."

A hard look at Liam, he gets the hint and says, "And when you returned, your 1973 report on Antarctica made you a scientist that was known around the world."

Queen Elsa smiles. "Yes." A slight grimace. "Oh, given my already growing bad reputation in front of reporters and the… the still bad reputation of being a lesbian, who was bold enough to speak out about women's rights, probably helped. A controversial interview with me meant good media ratings. Which helped spread, at least somewhat, the data I was releasing."

Richard thinks, '_It's a damn good thing that I'm just out of college: one my instructors used copies of her interviews as a guide in how the reporter is supposed to prepare for the tough ones. As only the good ones did not look like idiots.'_

"And the recommendations that were with them." She says in a hard tone. "They were not followed. The first of many times." She finishes with a growl. "I have told the world, over and over again. And nothing."

A hiss and a sigh. "But, enough of that. There will be plenty of time for everyone to see my frustrations and disappointments."

The ice of the tower begins to turn yellow.

A look at Liam, "Anything else, Liam? I am about to get into something...complex."

Liam looks around and looks down. "Hmmm.. There are a few questions. But, nothing new that is really important."

Queen Elsa nods. "Now. To continue."

"Complex...understates some of it." She says in a distracted manner, as she thinks and considers how to begin. "November 17, 1975 was the 100 year anniversary of my sister's death. That week… I visited her grave.."

The ice of the tower turns light red.

Herman and Joan move to stand next to the mother, to give her support.

Other children appear, to give their support, as well.

"That night… I had a dream. A dream sent from an old enemy. The entity that destroyed my son Magnus in 1866."

A deep breath. The ice changes color to red.

"Anna's soul was in her possession. She taunted me with that fact. And ordered me to begin a new ice age or else."

Liam and Richard glance at each other.

A grim hard look appears on Queen Elsa face, "I knew… that something like that was possible. I just… I just assumed that she...when Anna died, that...her soul went to her reward. A mistake."

A glance at the camera, a small sigh, "For magical, mystical reasons, Hel could not use Anna's soul until a century had passed. Now, she was going to use her against me."

A snort of a harsh laugh, "We both made mistakes."

'_Well, that will cause an eruption_.' Frigga thinks as she is monitoring the web. '_Especially on the websites that have already being built which declare her a Goddess, or a Demon. We knew that this was going to happen sooner or later, but, Mother is still ab libbing, this was not planned until later. Fixing this...will be difficult_.'

A humorous thought passes through her mind, as she looks at one site. '_And it looks like I will lose that bet with Joan. The web site calling for Mother to storm Heaven to free the soul of Michael Jackson will beat out the one calling for Elvis's soul, but it is still early_.'

A hard, harsh look appears in Queen Elsa's eyes as she stares into infinity. "I awoke in a rage. A blind rage. I ordered my family together.."

"I was unlivable to be with for the week it took everyone to gather. Olaf, Pabbie, and Eric tried and failed to stop me." She shudders, tears form in her eyes, which she lets flow. "I came the closest I have ever came to actual physical violence with Olaf. He tried that hard."

A tear filled glance at Joan.

Joan grabs her shoulder and says, "Everyone agreed that we had to do something, Mother. We just… Time to plan, time to prepare would have been nice."

"I refused them that." Queen Elsa. "Even Elizabeth could not convince me otherwise."

"I opened the gate to Jotunheim and I went to war, dragging my family with me." She pauses, brooding over her failure. "We were going to invade Helheim and free Anna's soul, or die trying." She finishes in a dead tone.

**End chapter 1**

* * *

In Honor of Elsa's appearance on Once Upon A Time.

August, 17 2014, just north of Oslo, Norway

A private horse ranch in the foothills.

Someone is watching the stables.

'_Getting through her normal defenses would be impossible. Her habit, even at her age, of horseback riding, though_.' He thinks, '_It wasn't easy, but it was possible to get here, hidden beside her normal trail_.'

The stables door opens and Elsa riding a tan horse comes out.

She learned to ride a horse when she was a child. While she has adapted to modern tech better than any of her peers, a couple of hours riding on a horse is a wonderful way to relax and think.

Eric has warned her about developing recognizable habits. Enemies will find them and try to exploit those habits.

She rides the horse on a semi-regular schedule, more for the horse than for her. The horse, a tan-colored Fjord horse, with a black and tan mane, is named Sitron. Who is the oh so many greats grandson of the original, who has her first spoil of war. He knows her, and enjoys their walks. Disappointing her favorite horse, by missing a date, is something she avoids.

As she rounds a bend, and as the trees and bushes crowd the trail something happens.

A web of golden ropes appears and flows over her..

She struggles against the web. Since she does not want to hurt the horse, though, her struggles are brief.

A small man, nearly a dwarf in size, with hard and ugly features appears from behind a bush. He is carrying a small child, a babe only a few weeks old. He is holding a golden knife against the babe's throat.

"I've caught you, Snow Queen." He giggles, "My golden web will hold you. It can hold anything." A glance down at the sleeping baby, "And your famous compassion means that you will not harm this child, or your horse with your powers."

A drop of blood appears on the tip of the blade. "Do not summon your servants." He hisses.

Elsa looks at him, "Your jealous rage is betraying you." She says calmly.

"YOU are after my secret!" He screams in anger. "You want the secret of the Philosopher's Stone! How I spin gold is my secret!"

"I need that ability. My attempts to duplicate it….lack permanency. With the Stone, I can create the resources I need." She says calmly, hiding the mix of joy and apprehension at finally, _finally_, getting the chance to obtain magic that would make such a huge impact on the future of earth.

She glances at the golden web around her, "A good attempt: if I freeze it, it will generate an electrical shock that will, you think, knock me unconscious."

"Yes." He hisses. His eyebrows bunch in confusion, "How do know that? You only know ice magic!"

"Your sources are wrong." She smiles. "It will interesting to see who lied to you."

He growls at her, the blood on the knife, increases.

Elsa's eyes narrow in anger. "This is your last chance, Rumleskaft. I made you a fair offer for your knowledge. Accept or Decline?"

"I want your first-born child!" Rumpelstiltskin screams back.

"No." A glance at the baby. "Although, if Olaf was here, he'd go with you, to save that child."

"He is not what I want!" Another scream.

A hard glance at the huffing and puffing Rumleskaft and the knife he is holding. "And threatening an innocent is your last act." She states, in the tone of a Queen pronouncing sentence.

"Maximus."

The horse under her changes shape. The first thing he does is change color to icy snow. The second thing, he grows several tentacles out of his shoulders.

Before Rumpelstiltskin can act, an icy tentacle has reached out and grabbed his wrist, twisting the knife away from the baby. Another tentacle has the baby and is bringing it, gently, to Elsa.

The main body of Maximus slides out from under Elsa, as it changes shape into an icy, and huge, Tyrannosaurus Rex. He swallows Rumpelstiltskin whole. Maximus lifts him up and makes sure that he is not in contact with the Earth, since Rumpelstiltskin's favorite escape route is to make a tunnel down into the Earth.

Elsa lands gently on the ground, standing, holding the young baby. She touches the child's neck and it heals instantly. A Healing spell that she learned years and years ago. One that many of her children know. She has made sure of that.

A touch of the web and the web of gold freezes and shatters, harmlessly.

"Someone tricked you, Rumleskaft. Finding out who did that will be useful. I need your secrets. Help me, please." Elsa begs.

Screams of rage come out of Maximus's mouth. If had eyebrows, Maximus would have bobbed them, but he settles for miming in step with what's coming out of his mouth.

Elsa sighs. "Asa?"

Asa appears out of the brush behind Rumpelstiltskin,where she had been waiting, patiently, to strike.

"Mother?"

A snap of Elsa's fingers and Maximus spits out the frozen Rumpelstiltskin.

"Take him, away. Confine him. Unfreeze him. We will see what type of deal he will accept to regain his freedom." She sighs, very unhappy.

A thoughtful look appears on her face, "Somebody used some very serious mind control spells on him. Ask Pabbie, if he could help. Hopefully, once we remove them, we can make a deal."

Maximus changes shape, again. He now looks similar to Olaf, but his eyes look different, a deep black. He wears a pair of icy glasses, and there is a human looking nose under them, with a bushy icy mustache. He looks like Olaf wearing a frozen Groucho Marx mask. An Icy cigar appears in his mouth.

"Easy, peasey. Mother. I thought he was a power?"

"When he is acting of his own free will, he is. This…" Elsa gently rocks the baby as pleasant memories flood back, "This was the idea of someone else. What was I supposed to do? Kill him? Or is this a distraction from something else?"

Maximus and Asa look around, searching. "Nothing that I can sense." Asa states. Maximus nods.

"Nor I." Elsa adds.

"A mystery." Asa growls. "One I will solve."

A sudden grin appears on Elsa's face. Something about what Asa said, has given her an idea.

"That might be the answer, Asa." Elsa grin widens. "Investigate. But, I think I know who sent me this gift."

'_Asa said that before, when she started to hunt down the Count the first time, in 1885_. _The Count is always careless about his tools_,' She thinks. '_And mind control is a bad habit of his_. _I wonder what favor he will ask for giving me the secret of the Stone_?''

"Mother?" both Asa and Maximus ask.

Elsa smiles. "I will keep my idea to myself, Asa. You need to investigate without any preconceived notions." She smiles, "Once we have freed him of the spells that are controlling him, hopefully he will accept my original deal."

A hard look at the frozen Rumleskaft. "I need the secret of the Philosopher's Stone. With that… Things become possible."

"What things?" Maximus asks.

"Great things."

She playfully taps the sleeping child's nose, resisting the temptation to make goo-goo eyes and silly noises, "Now, let us find the parents of this child, and return him. Then, I will take my normal ride on the real Sitron."

Her answer to Eric and her bodyguards: Have an easy looking hole in her defenses, which will attract her enemies to that hole. Watch the hole...and capture her enemies.

* * *

Rumleskaft is what Rumpelstiltskin is called in Norway.

Maximus… the shape changer supreme. You'll never know what he is.

Based on a comment from one of my reviewers. He wanted to know if I was going to use Elsa's appearance in Once Upon A Time. Grin, a good reason to review, no?

I am planning to use him as a major character? Not really, Rumpelstiltskin wasn't a character I was planning on using… but, there are a couple of minor magic users I can adjust. We will see, but do not expect him to reappear and if he does, he will be minor character.

Maximus, on the other hand, how knows? grin.

end scene.

* * *

Author's Note: The aftereffects of the coming chapter will move the Interview with Liam into more of a discussion of various metaphysics and philosophies. Writing them properly, will stretch out Kristen's life into 5 or 6 chapters.

Which, now that I think about it, this is the life in which she teaches, so...teaching you, the readers, is something that Elsa would do. (Ok. Elsa, I added that, happy now?)

On the other hand, with that out-of-the-way, once I get to her last Public life, I can concentrate on future history and show how...bad the conditions on Earth has gotten. Elsa would not being acting the way she is...unless it was the least worst choice out of a selection of more horrible actions.

Also, by putting the metaphysics in now, I can use that last Life to respond to you, the readers, questions/comments.

thank you for reading

jeff


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